Trump escalates Canada trade war with swipe at aviation industry

Ever since high-level trade talks between Canada and the US broke down nearly three weeks ago, the two sides have exchanged increasingly punishing blows in the form of tariffs. Trump imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, which went into effect last month. In response, Canada has imposed a raft of tariffs of 15-50% on about $20 billion worth of American goods, which went into effect on Tuesday.

Canadian officials have accused Trump of seeking to hollow out Canadian industry by forcing manufacturers to move to the US. For example, Trump is now threatening to ban selling planes made by Bombardier (Canada’s largest aerospace manufacturer) unless the company makes its planes in the US.

However, American workers, consumers, and companies will also feel the strain of these tit-for-tat tariffs, in part because of the interconnectedness of US and Canadian industries. Bombardier provides an illustrative example. Bombardier already does a considerable amount of component manufacturing in the US, employing about 3,000 people in their own US facilities. Moreover, Bombadier does billions of dollars’ worth of business annually with roughly 2800 US-based suppliers across 47 states. Banning the sale of Bombadier’s planes (all of which are ultimately assembled in Canada) would severely impact these American companies and the Americans employed by them.