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USA-China Tariff War Strikes Boeing

Recently the newly-elected President Trump decided autonomously to increase the customs duties of foreign imports to the United States in an erratic and unpredictable manner. Tariffs were imposed according to what he thought were being imposed on US imports by the various countries, totally disrupting established trade relationships around the world.

This confrontation between the USA and China has become particularly bitter. The Trump administration initially imposed customs duties of 145% for goods made in China. China immediately responded with 125% import duties on US goods. Moreover, adding collateral damage, the Peking Government also ordered the national airlines to suspend the take-up of already ordered (and sometimes also paid) Boeing airliners, as well as ground support equipment and aviation spare parts made in the USA.

The higher customs duties are also damaging, although perhaps less dramatically, to many other airlines all around the world, in particular those such as Ryanair, just to mention a significant example, which operate fleets standardized on Boeing models.

In the picture: Boeing B.777-39L B-2005 of' Air China "Love China special colours" parked at Munich Airport on March 1st, 2025. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, April 2025)