It's both disheartening and kind of hilarious to watch the United States' most heavily subsidized airplane manufacturer start a trade dispute over the subsidies given to Canada's most heavily subsidized airplane manufacturer.
On Thursday, Boeing alleged at the first day of a trade hearing in Washington, D.C., that government subsidies given to Bombardier Inc. are allowing it to sell its C-Series planes below market price.
Boeing wants massive duties slapped on Bombardier's medium-range airliners that would price them out of the American market.
This, of course, is the flying pot calling the flying kettle black. Boeing is the single most heavily subsidized American corporation at the state and local level, according to Good Jobs First, a website that tracks subsidies from U.S. government sources.
From 2000-2015, Boeing got $13.4-billion in grants and tax breaks – almost three times as much as the number-two company on the list, Intel. And now it's crying "no fair," because Bombardier has received billions in federal and provincial assistance, loans and investment since 2008 for the C-Series jet.
Bombardier, Boeing and their competitors around the world have basically made an industry out of squeezing the taxpayer for grants, low-interest loans and tax breaks. Some, like Bombardier, are poorly run companies that require – and inevitably get – bailouts when mismanagement catches up with them.
It all comes down to the simple fact that these companies create tens of thousands of jobs, and governments are ready to pay whatever it takes to reap the political benefits.
At the same time, the companies are desperately trying to undercut each other to win sales. Boeing's commercial airline division is under siege from traditional foreign competitors like Bombardier, Airbus and Embraer, and from growing competition in Asia, so knocking Bombardier out of the game would be a big win.
It's not a very edifying sight.
Kudos, though, to the Canadian government, which is calling Boeing's bluff by threatening to cancel a multibillion-dollar order for the company's Super Hornet fighter planes, if Boeing pushes ahead with its complaint against Bombardier.
As of Friday, Boeing's military-sales division was trying to get someone in Ottawa to pick up the phone.