Donald Trump threatened to bar Bombardier from selling aircraft in the United States unless the Canadian business-jet maker shifts manufacturing to the country, escalating a trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa. The move centres on Bombardier’s market access in the US, where the company has a sizeable commercial presence and about half of its 5,100-aircraft fleet is operated by American customers.
Bombardier, based in Montreal, has built a substantial US footprint with operations in Kansas, Texas, Arizona, California and other states. The company employs about 3,500 people in the country and works with roughly 2,800 suppliers across 47 states, spending more than $2.5 billion a year with US vendors. That supply chain exposure underlines the scale of any restriction on sales.
The threat came as Canadian retaliatory tariffs against the US were taking effect, adding pressure to already strained bilateral trade ties. No formal order, tariff schedule or enforcement mechanism has been identified publicly, leaving unclear how any sales ban could be implemented in practice.