Commerce secretary: Beijing blocking ‘tens of billions of dollars’ of Boeing airplane purchases

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Tuesday said the Chinese government has been barring airlines in the country from purchasing “tens of billions of dollars” of U.S.-made Boeing airplanes.

Raimondo, during a Q&A session following a speech in Washington, said Beijing is not purchasing U.S. goods in violation of a 2020 trade agreement 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,” Raimondo said, according to Reuters.

Boeing’s stock price dropped by 2.6 percent on Tuesday, according to Reuters, falling to $218.41.

Raimondo made similar comments during an interview with NPR on Tuesday, alleging that the government of China “is holding that up,” referring to purchases of U.S.-manufactured Boeing aircraft.

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

“They are not respecting intellectual property and stealing IP of American companies. They’re putting up all kinds of different barriers for American companies to do business in China,” she added.

When reached by The Hill, Boeing declined to comment.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying, asked about the situation during a press conference on Wednesday, referred reporters to the “competent authority for the specifics regarding trade between China and the US.”

She did, however, emphasize that the economic relationship and trade between the U.S. and China are “in essence mutually beneficial and win-win, and both sides stand to lose in a trade war.”

“China has all along firmly upheld the WTO-centered multilateral trading system and do business in accordance with international trading rules. The international community sees very clearly who has been wielding the big stick of sanctions, and politicizing and weaponizing economic issues with ideological prejudice in the past few years,” she said.

“We hope the US will earnestly respect market economy principles and international trading rules, and work with China to strive for healthy and steady development of China-US trade and economic relations,” she added.

Boeing last week slightly increased its forecast pertaining to China’s aircraft demand for the next two decades which, according to Reuters, is leaning on Beijing quickly recovering from COVID-19 and seeing growth in its budget airline sector and e-commerce.

The company roughly calculated that airlines in China will need 8,700 new aircraft until 2024, which is 1.2 percent higher than the past prediction of 8,600 planes manufactured last year, according to the news wire.

That would be worth $1.47 trillion based on list prices, Reuters reported, citing Boeing.

The Boeing 737 MAX has still not been approved to reenter the skies in China following two fatal crashes, according to Reuters. That aircraft reportedly makes up a quarter of Boeing’s airplane orders.

The newest version of the jet successfully underwent its first test flight in June.