By Dan Catchpole and Lisa Barrington
SEATTLE (Reuters) – A Boeing jet supposed to be used by a Chinese language airline landed again on the planemaker’s U.S. manufacturing hub on Sunday, a sufferer of the tit-for-tat bilateral tariffs launched by President Donald Trump in his international commerce offensive.
The 737 MAX, which was meant for China’s Xiamen Airways, landed at Seattle’s Boeing Discipline at 6:11 p.m. (0111 GMT), in response to a Reuters witness. It was painted with Xiamen livery.
The jet, which made refueling stops in Guam and Hawaii on its 5,000-mile (8,000-km) return journey, was one among a number of 737 MAX jets ready at Boeing’s Zhoushan completion middle for remaining work and supply to a Chinese language provider.
Trump this month raised baseline tariffs on Chinese language imports to 145%. In retaliation, China has imposed a 125% tariff on U.S. items. A Chinese language airline taking supply of a Boeing jet might be crippled by the tariffs, given {that a} new 737 MAX has a market worth of round $55 million, in response to IBA, an aviation consultancy.
It isn’t clear which occasion made the choice for the plane to return to the U.S. Boeing didn’t instantly reply to request for remark. Xiamen didn’t reply to request for remark.
The return of the 737 MAX, Boeing’s best-selling mannequin, is the most recent signal of disruption to new plane deliveries from a breakdown within the aerospace business’s decades-old duty-free standing.
The tariff struggle and obvious U-turn over deliveries comes as Boeing has been recovering from an virtually five-year import freeze on 737 MAX jets and a earlier spherical of commerce tensions.
Confusion over altering tariffs may go away many plane deliveries in limbo, with some airline CEOs saying they’d defer supply of planes fairly than pay duties, analysts say.
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle and Lisa Barrington in Seoul; Enhancing by Joe Brock and William Mallard)
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