Canada just approved US-made jets under threat of massive new tariffs from Trump

Canadian regulators have given the thumbs-up to Gulfstream’s latest business jets, less than a month after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs over the planes’ status north of the border.

Transport Canada certified the Georgia-based company’s G700 and G800 jets on Monday, according to a departmental document, eight days after green-lighting two older Gulfstream models.

Trump warned last month he would decertify and place tariffs on all Canadian-made planes unless the government approved the four Gulfstream luxury aircraft, marking the latest escalation of trade tensions between the two countries.

The go-ahead from Transport Canada comes despite de-icing concerns flagged by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which has granted the G700 and G800 conditional certification.

The FAA said Gulfstream, owned by General Dynamics, has until the end of this year to prove that the two plane types function “properly under the probable operating conditions where ice may form in the fuel system,” according to a temporary exemption granted in 2024.

A Gulfstream G600 is presented at the Paris Air Show, Wednesday, June 18, 2025 in Le Bourget, north of Paris. Thibault Camus | AP Photo

Experts had cast doubt on Trump’s ability to decertify planes — typically the responsibility of the FAA, not the Oval Office — in a proposed move that would deal a blow to plane makers, airlines and travellers on both sides of the border.

Historically, plane groundings by regulators have related strictly to safety, like when the Boeing 737 Max 8 was banned from the skies for 20 months during the first Trump administration. Aviation authorities across the globe issued directives in March 2019 after a deadly crash that killed all 157 people on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight in the second of two Max crashes less than five months apart.

In a Truth Social post on Jan. 29, Trump singled out Bombardier Inc. in a threat to ground all Canadian-made aircraft and slap them with a 50 per cent tariff. White House officials later clarified that the effective banning of Canadian-built planes from American skies would apply only to new aircraft, rather than the more than than 5,400 Canadian-made planes and helicopters registered in the United States.

Bombardier and Gulfstream are head-to-head rivals, with the Global series battling for market share against Gulfstream’s latest models.

Any blow to Bombardier would be a blow to American companies, too.

Bombardier has said it employs 3,000 people across nine sites south of the border and counts 2,800 U.S. suppliers. The company’s jets typically boast at least 40 per cent U.S. content.

Meanwhile, the U.S. enjoys a large trade surplus with Canada in aerospace, meaning the general trade imbalance Trump has cited to justify other levies does not apply.

Aircraft constructed in Canada include Bombardier luxury jets, De Havilland Canada Twin Otters and water bombers, A220 single-aisle jets made by French aerospace giant Airbus and helicopters from Texas-based Bell Textron.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2026.

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