By David Shepardson and Bhargav Acharya
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday the U.S. was decertifying Bombardier Global Express business jets and threatened 50% import
tariffs on other aircraft made in Canada until the country certified a number of planes produced by U.S. rival Gulfstream.
"Further, Canada is effectively prohibiting the sale of Gulfstream products in Canada through this very same certification process," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "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."
It was unclear what planes beyond Bombardier's Global Express franchise would fall under Trump's increased tariffs, including the Airbus A220 commercial jets made in Canada.
FlightRadar24 said on X there were more than 400 Canadian-made planes operating to and from U.S. airports as of about 0100 GMT on Friday.
Data provider Cirium said there were 150 Global Express aircraft in service registered in the U.S., operated by 115 operators.
Bombardier, General Dynamics-owned Gulfstream and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's office did not immediately respond when asked for comment.
Trump said Canada has refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 jets. In April, the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency certified the Gulfstream G800 jet. Transport Canada, which is responsible for Canadian certification, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
It was unclear how Trump would decertify the planes since that is the job of the Federal Aviation Administration, but he has made similar declarations in the past that were ultimately carried out, often with exemptions, by relevant agencies.
It was also not clear if the Federal Aviation Administration could revoke certifications for planes based on economic reasons or what that would mean for American owners of the planes and whether that would prevent them from operating in the United States. The FAA can revoke an airplane's certification for safety reasons. The FAA declined immediate comment.
CERTIFICATION PROCESS
Under global aviation rules the country where an aircraft is designed - the U.S. in Gulfstream's case - is responsible for primary certification known as a type certificate, vouching for the design’s safety.
Other countries typically validate the decision of the primary regulator, allowing the plane into their airspace, but have the right to refuse or ask for more data. Following the Boeing 737 MAX crisis, European regulators delayed endorsement of some U.S. certification decisions and pressed for further design changes, sparking tensions with the FAA.
As part of continuing U.S.-Canada tensions, Carney on Tuesday denied he had retracted comments that irritated Trump, and said almost nothing was normal in the United States.
Carney, citing U.S. trade policy, last week urged nations to accept the end of the rules-based global order that Washington had once championed. Due to U.S. tariffs on key Canadian imports, Carney is pushing to diversify trade away from the United States, which takes around 70% of all Canadian exports under terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade deal.
The FAA in December certified Bombardier's Global 8000 business jet, the world's fastest civilian plane since the Concorde with a top speed of Mach 0.95, or about 729 mph (1,173 kph). It was certified by Transport Canada on November 5.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Toronto, David Shepardson and Jasper Ward in Washington, Allison Lampert in Montreal and Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Jamie Freed)
