Bombardier shares drop 9% after Trump threatens Canada with aircraft tariffs, decertification

By Allison Lampert

MONTREAL, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Bombardier shares dropped 9% on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to decertify the private jet maker’s large-cabin planes “and all Aircraft made in Canada” and ‍slap 50% import tariffs on new planes until Canada certified the latest aircraft produced by U.S. rival Gulfstream.

While a White House official told Reuters that Trump was not suggesting decertifying Canadian-built planes currently in operation, the president’s warning on Thursday night caused confusion and alarm among airlines and aviation analysts, along with ‌buyers and owners of private jets.

“If, for any reason, ‌this situation is not immediately corrected, I am going to charge Canada a 50% Tariff on any and all aircraft sold into the United States of America,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Soar Aviation Law attorney Amanda Applegate, ​a U.S. specialist in business aviation law, said on Friday the post had prompted queries from clients who own, or want to buy, ‍Bombardier planes.

There are also broader tensions between ​the neighboring countries after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, citing ​U.S. trade policy, last week urged nations to accept the end of the ‍rules-based global order that Washington had once championed.

Aircraft and aerospace parts have largely escaped the brunt of Trump’s U.S.-led trade war, with Canadian-made planes continuing to be exported south of the border under the USMCA trade agreement.

Trump also said he was “decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all ‍Aircraft made in Canada” until the Gulfstream planes were certified. Gulfstream is owned by General Dynamics .

That threat, if carried out, would have a drastic impact on U.S. ‍carriers like American Airlines ‍and Delta Air Lines, which rely on Canadian-made airplanes ​for many of their regional services. The United States ​is ⁠also the world’s largest market for business aviation.

Data provider ‌Cirium has said there are 150 Global Express aircraft in service registered in the U.S., operated by 115 operators, and a total of 5,425 aircraft of various types made in Canada in service registered in the U.S. including narrow-body jets, regional jets and helicopters.

(Allison Lampert in Montreal and Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing ⁠by Kevin Liffey)