Trump threatens Canada with 50% tariff on aircraft sold in US, expanding trade war

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened Canada with a 50% tariff on any aircraft sold in the U.S., the latest salvo in his trade war with America's northern neighbor as his feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney expands.

Trump's threat posted on social media came after he threatened over the weekend to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if it went forward with a planned trade deal with China. But Trump's threat did not come with any details about when he would impose the import taxes, as Canada had already struck a deal.

In Trump's latest threat, the Republican president said he was retaliating against Canada for refusing to certify jets from Savannah, Georgia-based Gulfstream Aerospace.

Trump said the U.S., in return, would decertify all Canadian aircraft, including planes from its largest aircraft maker, Bombardier. ''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 his post.

Trump said he is ''hereby decertifying" the Bombardier Global Express business jets. There are 150 Global Express aircraft in service registered in the U.S., operated by 115 operators, according to Cirium, the aviation analytics company.

Bombardier and Gulfstream are head-to-head rivals, with the Global series battling for market share against Gulfstream's latest models.

Spokespeople for Bombardier and Canada's transport minister didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday evening.

''Certification is not trivial. It is a very important step in getting planes to operate safely,'' Gradek said. ''Somebody is not picking on the Gulfstream. Decertification for trade reasons does not happen."

Gradek said many Gulfstreams have been certified for years in Canada.

''This is really a smokescreen that's basically throwing up another red flag in the face of Mr. Carney," Gradek said. ''This is taking it to the extreme. This is a new salvo in the trade war."

The U.S. Commerce Department previously put duties on a Bombardier commercial passenger jet in 2017 during the first Trump administration, charging that the Canadian company was selling the planes in America below cost. The U.S. said then that the Montreal-based Bombardier used unfair government subsidies to sell jets at artificially low prices.

The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington later ruled that Bombardier did not injure U.S. industry.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Carney on Wednesday that his recent public comments against U.S. trade policy could backfire going into the formal review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal that protects Canada from the heaviest impacts of Trump's tariffs.

Carney rejected Bessent's contention that he had aggressively walked back his comments at the World Economic Forum during a phone call with Trump on Monday.

Carney said he told Trump that he meant what he said in his speech at Davos, and told him Canada plans to diversify away from the United States with a dozen new trade deals.

In Davos at the World Economic Forum last week, Carney condemned economic coercion by great powers on smaller countries without mentioning Trump's name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the gathering.

Besides Bombadier, other major aircraft manufacturers in Canada include De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, which makes turboprop planes and aircraft designed for maritime patrols and reconnaissance, and European aerospace giant Airbus. Airbus manufactures its single-aisle A220 commercial planes and helicopters in Canada.

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