Ross Gives Both Sides Reason for Hope in Bombardier-Boeing Feud

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross gave both sides reason for hope in the trade dispute between Bombardier Inc. and Boeing Co. over passenger jets.

Speaking at a forum in the U.K., where parts of Bombardier’s C Series planes are manufactured, Ross said a final decision on duties against the aircraft is weeks away.

“While it’s normally true that the final determination -- which is some weeks away -- normally more or less follows the preliminary, it doesn’t always,” Ross said, citing a recent case where the U.S. reversed a decision to impose tariffs on Thai fibers. Lest Montreal-based Bombardier get too euphoric, he added, “You should draw no conclusion from that.”

The comments raised the suspense surrounding the final ruling on the C Series after the Commerce Department slapped the jet with import duties of about 300 percent, following a complaint by Boeing. The decision to impose antidumping and countervailing duties on the aircraft had major repercussions, with government officials from Ottawa and London crying foul and Chicago-based Boeing applauding the move.

To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Woods in Washington at rwoods13@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Brendan Case, Tony Robinson

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