Boeing Repatriates MAX Caught In Tariff Tiff

Boeing has started bringing aircraft sold to Chinese airlines back to the U.S. after China announced last week it had told airlines to stop taking delivery of Boeing products. The move was in response to a trade war sparked by President Donald Trump's imposition of 145 percent tariffs on U.S. goods. It's not clear whether the tariffs actually applied to the aircraft that landed in Seattle on Sunday, presumably to be stored until some kind of deal is reached to allow its delivery. If the tariffs did apply, the cost of the MAX would have been about $135 million rather than the normal $55 million sticker price.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/boeing-repatriates-max-caught-in-tariff-tiff

“Repatriates MAX”? More like ‘Returned to Sender. Trade War Edition.’

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And how high are China’s tariffs on US products? When you only repeat one side of the story a false impression is created. Trump’s tariffs are in response to all of the tariffs imposed on the US over decades. He’s just trying to level the field.

And leveling he is. Nearly all countries are negotiating but China. I’m sure Boeing will have no problem passing them on to other airlines with backlogged orders.

Chinese workers at the Boeing completion center in China will now be out of work??
Xi best hope that we don’t cut off the Leap engines that power the 919 or any of the other critical components for that airliner for which China has no alternative? Maybe buyers that refuses delivery, may pay a penalty plus they loose all the money they paid to build the jet up until that time. Plus the money they spent just to get in line for a delivery. Plenty of buyers on back order 737’s. Tariffs like passing a kidney stone. It to will pass…

China’s always had tariffs, but before this mess, their average was around 7.5%. Then we slam a 145% U.S. tariff wall on everything and call it “leveling the field”?

Tell that to Boeing, starting with the 737 MAX booted from Zhoushan and flown back to Seattle. Parts are still trickling in from China, but they’re getting hammered with massive U.S. import costs and delays. Like I’ve said in other threads, China and Boeing run lean on JIT. Not much buffer. If this keeps up, Boeing warehouses are gonna run dry.

If this was really about fixing trade, why’s Boeing getting smoked. Doesn’t add up.

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It’s not quite that one-sided, Dawg. Although I agree that Chinese workers at the Boeing Zhoushan center might be at risk if this delivery freeze drags out, but Boeing built that center to support a market that’s now walking away, and not without reason.

As for the LEAP engines powering the C919. China doesn’t make them, but they do make a lot of the parts for them, turbine blades, gearboxes, wiring harnesses. All critical components that go into LEAP-1A (Airbus) and LEAP-1B (737 MAX) too. If China wanted to retaliate and slow-walk those exports, it wouldn’t just hurt COMAC, it’d jam up Boeing and Airbus across the globe.

COMAC’s stuck with LEAP-1Cs for now, but they’re sitting on stockpiles and fast-tracking their own CJ-1000A engine, out of certification sink by 3 years or so but they got a plan B in motion.

Also, you are correct, buyers who walk away from a jet after build may eat penalties and deposits. But with 737 MAXs stacked up and China out of the picture, those backorders aren’t a quick solve. Boeing isn’t in a “plenty to go around” position.

China may not control the engine, but they control enough of the web to tangle it badly. This isn’t a clean win for anyone, it’s a lose-lose with global ripple effects.

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What countries are negotiating and what are they negotiating? We have a trade deficit because decades ago manufacturers found it was cheaper to build things in other countries than to build them here. That cost differential is not going to change by reducing or increasing tariffs. You can’t “level” paying someone 3 dollars per day versus paying someone 30 dollars per hour. Putting pride and patriotism aside, China has a manufacturing workforce, of hundreds of millions of workers, that we simply cannot compete with and that no amount of tariffs can change.

Bringing facts to an opinion fight is like bringing a gun to a knife fight.

Indeed, the US foreign policy including global economic policy is indeed “ leveling the field “. Like a wrecking ball and a D9 dozer leveling a playground for a parking lot. For the first time, a country is tariffing the entire planet. America has applied a global tariff to everyone. The Emperor believes every country has been unfair regarding trade with the US. Our duly elected Emperor decided that to reduce our trade imbalance, the US taxpayer will be happy to pay even more for commodities we do not produce, to teach the globe, a financial lesson. And for the few things manufactured domestically that we do export to, we will jack up those prices by 145% in the case of China, to teach them a lesson that you just can’t get an airliner anywhere, it has to be Boeing, and they will be walking with out Boeing. Of course Boeing can absorb this airliner takeaway financially in the meantime because the Emperor can sell these unobtainable airliners to other tariffed countries, who the Emperor thinks will buy at a reduced tariff, the now painted accumulating Boeings from China. Yes, while paying higher domestic prices, he thinks the US consumer will live with more layoffs, corporate bankruptcies because this is a necessary economic pain we must endure as patriotic citizens to make America great again. After all, we have been continually taken advantage of prior to this “awakening”. Time to teach the planet a lesson in economics. After all, Airbus, Embraer, Tupolov, Tecnam, and the do-called Chinese “fledgling” aviation industry are all inferior to Boeing and its technology so much so, they have no capacity to produce a competitive product. Therefore, it’s global US compliance or no airliners for anyone. Global compliance means everybody will have to pay more of varying degrees for unobtainable airliners. Some more than others.

This fanciful, bombastic hubris and flat out arrogance is another mile marker on our current pathway of technological, economic, and moral decline. At least we are an equal opportunity destroyer as we treat neighbors with equal audacity as our Emperor’s personally chosen enemies…which, in this case, is everyone else outside our borders.

I am sure global boardrooms are all breathlessly negotiating “ deals” to overnight, start digging holes for Airbus, Embraer, Tupelov, and Chinese aviation manufacturing facilities in the US to level the airliner playing field.

The Chinese have got this down to a science. They already own Cirrus, Diamond, Mooney, and Continental, without having to build any infrastructure. They bought what no US investors wanted when they faced bankruptcy. Boeing could shortly become the next Chinese aviation acquisition making it the airliner version of Cirrus/Continental saga. They already have Chinese manufactured and flying regional airliners supporting their domestic passengers and national economy. Why not Boeing for the BRICS nation’s consumption.

Yeah Big Don, you will be teaching the planet…don’t mess with the US! At this time the remaining global airliner manufacturing companies will take you up on your offer and not invest into America until Boeing dies a quick financial death, then teach you a lesson when they buy it at the next aviation fire sale. At least there will be chance skilled American workers might get their jobs back.

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No mention anywhere on the moral choice. China has been the big winner of globalization, yet is not democratic, with allegations of forced labor, most executions on our planet, environmental issues etc. It steals IP from trade partners and then there is the currency manipulation. It buys political influence elsewhere and corners the market in natural resources where it can. The reason Biden did not reverse earlier measures against China was that they made a fair point. Again, we see the US leading a necessary fight to advance values we hold high. This is not to say all is handled to perfection, just to highlight a side of the argument often forgotten when just talking numbers/cost/inflation.

Bringing facts to an opinion fight is like bringing a gun to a knife fight.

Balls. A gun can level the field in a knife fight, but ‘facts’ don’t stand a chance against opinions.

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