OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada Tuesday shrugged off a Brazilian threat to impose a variety of sanctions on Canadian products in a dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers, saying Brasilia had no legal right to do so.
Brazilian Agriculture Minister Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes said in Geneva Monday that his country could boycott Canadian chemical and cereal products if Canada imposed sanctions which have already been authorized by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"They (the Brazilians) do not have any legal WTO authority to retaliate at this moment," Canadian foreign ministry spokesman Francois Lasalle told Reuters.
Brazil says it will go to the WTO over Canada's promise to give regional aircraft maker Bombardier Inc. $1.1 billion in loans to help it land a sale of 75 jets to a U.S. airline.
Canadian officials contend the help would balance unfair Brazilian export subsidies -- known as the ProEx program -- to Bombardier rival Embraer.
Canada has won four WTO rulings against Brazil's aid to Embraer over the past four years and last month the trade body gave Ottawa the right to impose $233.5 million in sanctions a year for seven years.
Brazil responded by changing the scheme and calling it "new ProEx" but Lasalle said Canada was still not happy.
"We're going to ask the WTO on Feb. 1 to evaluate whether 'new ProEx' complies with the earlier four rulings," he said. Canada has yet to decide whether it will apply the sanctions.:
