Bombardier accuses Boeing of '˜pure hypocrisy'

In April, fellow aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing (based in the USA) complained to US authorities that Bombardier was “dumping” C-Series jets on the US market – using subsidies from the UK and Canada to unfairly produce its planes at a cut-price rate. It called for penalties against the firm.

The wings for the C Series were designed and are built at Bombardier’s east Belfast facility, where the GMB trade union estimates that about 1,000 people work on the C Series.

But Bombardier has now hit back.

“Bombardier shares Boeing’s commitment to a level playing field, but in this case, they were not even on the field,” it said in a statement. “Delta ordered the C Series because Boeing stopped making an aircraft of the size Delta needed years ago.

“It is pure hypocrisy for Boeing to say that the C Series launch pricing is a ‘violation of global trade law’ when Boeing does the same for its new aircraft. Boeing’s self-serving actions threaten thousands of aerospace jobs around the world, including thousands of U.K and U.S. jobs and billions of purchases from the many U.K. and U.S. suppliers who build components for the C Series.

“The U.S. government should reject Boeing’s attempt to tilt the playing field in its favor and impose an indirect tax on the U.S. flying public through unjustified import tariffs.”