Canada approves latest Gulfstream business jets after Trump tariff threat

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 threatened 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 (FAA), which granted the G700 and G800 conditional certification in 2024.

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.

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.

WATCH | Canada certified older Gulfstream jets last week:

Transport Canada certifies Gulfstream jets amid Trump aviation tariff threat

Transport Canada has certified the American-made Gulfstream G500 and G600 business jets, according to a document posted on the federal government’s website. These jets were at the centre of U.S. President Donald Trump’s aviation dispute last month, accusing Canada of ‘illegally’ refusing to certify several Gulfstream models. Trump threatened to impose a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian aircraft, including Bombardier jets, and said his administration would ‘decertify’ them. He has not followed through on his threat.

In a Truth Social post on Jan. 29, Trump singled out Bombardier 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…