US says China government blocking airplane purchases

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks to Reuters, Sept. 23, 2021. (Reuters)

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks to Reuters, Sept. 23, 2021. (Reuters)Aviation

US says China government blocking airplane purchases

“The Chinese need to play by the rules. We need to hold their feet to the fire and hold them accountable,” she said.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Tuesday the Chinese government is preventing its domestic airlines from buying “tens of billions of dollars” of US-manufactured airplanes.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks to Reuters, Sept. 23, 2021. (Reuters)

Raimondo said that China was not abiding by commitments to buy US goods it made in 2020 as part of a trade deal made with the previous administration.

“I don’t know if Boeing is here. … There’s tens of billions of dollars of planes that Chinese airlines want to buy but the Chinese government is standing in the way,” she said in a question-and-answer session after a speech in Washington.

“The Chinese need to play by the rules. We need to hold their feet to the fire and hold them accountable,” she said.

Boeing and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.

Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun in March urged the United States to keep human rights and other disputes separate from trade relations with Beijing.

“I am hoping we can sort of separate intellectual property, human rights and other things from trade and continue to encourage a free trade environment between these two economic juggernauts,” Calhoun said at the time. “We cannot afford to be locked out of that market.”

Boeing last week raised its forecast slightly for China’s aircraft demand for the next 20 years, betting on the country’s quick rebound from COVID-19 and future growth in its budget airline sector and e-commerce.

Chinese airlines will need 8,700 new airplanes through 2040, 1.2 percent higher than its previous prediction of 8,600 planes made last year. Those would be worth $1.47 trillion based on list prices, Boeing said.

China’s aviation authority, the first regulator to ground the Boeing 737 MAX following two deadly crashes, has yet to approve the return of service for the aircraft in the country.

China accounts for a quarter of Boeing’s orders of all aircraft.

(C)REUTERS 2021

3 comments

  1. Destroy all goods from China by using steam rollers, bring the jobs back, dismantle the rule of big tech, and restore our privacy, our dignity, and quality!!!

  2. “We cannot afford to be locked out of that market.”
    That lame excuse has gotten us to where we now are or rather, has given growth to this trash nation and created our biggest rival … a monster. How rich is rich enough? Stop trading with bat virus land. Put them back to their place.

Enter comments here: