Righteous War?

Nope. UK Prime Minister Teresa May has threatened a trade war over a punitive tariff requested by Boeing against a plane produced in Northern Ireland by Bombardier. Boeing accused Bombardier of "dumping" by accepting state support for its C-series jetliners. Boeing doth protesteth too loudly.

The C-series is a 100-passenger aircraft and this is a market in which Boeing has no models and furthermore has no plans to produce any. In fact, the last time it manufactured an aircraft of this size was 2006. The real gripe: it lost a Delta order for the bigger 737 when Delta instead went with 75 of the C-series. United also reversed a 737 order and may order the C-series as well. Not if Boeing can help it. 

And "state support?" Seriously? Who foots the bill via monstrous defense contracts for the R&D on new aviation materials and applications that are then used in the civilian sector? And for years the U.S. Export-Import Bank guaranteed loans for jets - Boeing jets. Surely that could not be U.S. taxpayers! 

There are certainly cases of trade dumping that occur and the U.S. has to respond with a more muscular trade policy including tariffs, but this is not one of them. Make nice, Mr. President and acknowledge the Right Honorable Lady from Britain has a point. Let's help make Brexit work. 

www.ft.com/content/bfdb3f24-a379-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2?mhq5j=e7