U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May asked U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene in a court dispute between Boeing Co. and Canada’s Bombardier Inc. over state aid, her office said.
The request, made in a call with the president on Sept. 5, came as her government seeks to protect jobs at a Bombardier plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland. May’s government relies on votes from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party to pass legislation through the House of Commons.
May raised the case with Trump after the intervention of DUP leader Arlene Foster, the Times of London newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.
“Our priority is to encourage Boeing to drop its case and seek a negotiated settlement with Bombardier,” the U.K. Department for Business said in an emailed statement. “This is a commercial matter but the U.K. government is working tirelessly to safeguard Bombardier’s operations and its highly skilled workers in Belfast.”
Boeing is pressing the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose tariffs against its Canadian competitor over sales of its C Series Jets at “absurdly low prices” while receiving unfair government support, including a 113 million-pound (US$149 million) loan from the British government. The commission ruled in June that Boeing may have been harmed by sales of C Series aircraft at less than fair value.
'Level Playing Field'
Boeing said in a statement that it is seeking to restore “a level playing field” in the U.S. single-aisle airplane market. “Boeing had to take action as subsidized competition has hurt us now and will continue to hurt us for years to come, and we could not stand by given this clear case of illegal dumping,” the company said.
“This is the normal course of action for addressing instances where a competitor is selling into the U.S. market below cost, and we will let the process play out,” it added. “We believe that global trade only works if everyone plays by the same rules of the road, and that’s a principle that ultimately creates the greatest value for Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and our aerospace industry.”
Alongside May’s intervention, Business Secretary Greg Clark traveled to Chicago to meet with Boeing executives to try to find a solution to the dispute and safeguard about 4,500 jobs in Bombardier’s Northern Ireland unit, his office said.
By Thomas Penny
