As we celebrated Labour Day and its importance in our collective history yesterday, someone who knows little about either fired off the latest salvo in a trade war that gets harder to follow every day.
U.S. President Donald Trump went on the attack against Bombardier (along with other companies). One post threatened to block sales from Bombardier in the U.S. unless the company builds its planes there.
In a long list of posts that make many headlines but little sense, this is one of the most exhausting.
You see, Bombardier isn’t just a major supplier of U.S. airliners, they are a major employer and a direct supplier of the U.S. military itself.
Their economic impact in the U.S. is staggering, with thousands of jobs at more than 20 locations stateside and a supply chain that includes 28-hundred American firms in 47 states (almost all of them).
Some of the planes produced are being purchased by the U.S. military itself, including the BACN or Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, which serve as high-altitude communications bridges.
Tariff the parts or the planes once assembled and you not only threaten thousands of jobs and billions in tax revenue in your own country but delay essential aircraft that form the backbone of your aviation industry and help protect American lives at home and abroad.
As we enact 28-billion dollars in tariffs on U.S. products today, I can only hope for a return to the bargaining table and a swift end to our new trade war. Like in conventional wars, no one is truly winning and the people on the ground are paying the price.
I’m Paul Martin and that’s what I see looking Beyond the Headlines.
