Boeing, Airbus fret over impact of global trade war

China trying to narrow gap with Western manufacturers

The world’s two largest plane makers signalled yesterday that they were keen to see an end to a bruising trade war between Washington and Beijing, as China opened its largest air show with a display that showcased its aviation ambitions.

Boeing and Airbus made their comments on the opening day of the biennial Airshow China, being held in the coastal city of Zhuhai from November 6-11, that is traditionally an event for Beijing to parade its growing aviation prowess.

China has become a key hunting ground for deals for foreign aviation firms thanks to surging travel demand, but the outlook has been complicated by Beijing’s desire to grow its own champions in industries ranging from aviation to semiconductors to robots.

While US-made aircraft, among America’s biggest exports to China, have so far escaped Beijing’s tariffs, analysts said they were still waiting to see what the trade war would spell for US companies such as Boeing.

George Xu, the top China executive at Boeing’s biggest rival Airbus, said at a news conference that the European plane maker did not expect a sales windfall from the tensions.

“I am Chinese and we don’t like this kind of trade war,” he said. “Nobody will be the winner in this kind of trade war.”

Boeing’s senior vice-president of Northeast Asia sales, Rick Anderson, said: “We continue to engage with leaders of US and China, and continue to urge productive conversation to resolve the trade discrepancies,” he said. “We are optimistic for a quick solution.” China and US have in recent days stoked optimism that a breakthrough might be made.

Still, Beijing has shown little sign of taming its ambitions to catch up with rivals like the US, France and Germany in highend technology. Projects being showcased in Zhuhai included a full-scale mock-up of a widebody CR929 jet being jointly developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in hopes of eventually competing with Boeing’s 787 and Airbus’ A350 jets.