US aviation giant Boeing, fresh off a crippling labor dispute and quality control crisis, has now found itself drawn into the escalating trade conflict between Washington and Beijing.The largest US exporter, Boeing has been caught in the crossfire after President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs of up to 145 percent on many Chinese products, sparking retaliatory 125 percent levies from Beijing.The duties more than double the cost of aircraft and spare parts manufactured in the United States.On Tuesday, Trump accused China of reneging on a “big Boeing deal,” following a Bloomberg news report that Beijing ordered airlines not to take further deliveries of the company’s jets.The report also said that Beijing requested Chinese carriers to pause purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from US firms.Boeing has declined to comment on the matter.Last week, Bloomberg reported that China’s Juneyao Airlines was delaying delivery of a Boeing widebody aircraft as the growing trade conflict drives up costs of big-ticket products.- ‘Not surprised’-Boeing’s website shows its order book at the end of March contained 130 aircraft due to Chinese customers, including airlines and leasing companies.But as some buyers prefer to remain anonymous, the true figure could be higher.Bank of America (BofA) analysts note that Boeing is scheduled to deliver 29 aircraft this year to identified Chinese companies, but added that a large portion of unidentified customers who bought aircraft are actually Chinese.”China represents about 20 percent of the market for large civil jets over the next 20 years,” BofA Securities said in a note.It added that the US administration cannot ignore Boeing when it considers trade balances.”Boeing is the US’s largest exporter, as such, we are not surprised by China’s move; however, we do see this as unsustainable,” BofA Securities said.Boeing’s main competitor Airbus cannot be China’s only supplier of large commercial jets given its capacity constraints, it said.The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) is also “highly dependent on US suppliers,” the analysts said.If China stopped buying aircraft components from the United States, COMAC’s C919 program — a competitor to Boeing’s 737 or Airbus’s A320 — would be halted, they said.A delivery blockage would affect the United States’ trade balance further as well.Boeing’s production slowed significantly after quality issues that emerged with an in-flight incident in January 2024, and two factories were subsequently paralysed by a strike in the fall.According to US official data, commercial aircraft exports reached $4.2 billion in August last year but dropped to $2.6 billion in September. They slipped further in October and November.In December, when Boeing deliveries gradually resumed, the amount rose to $3.1 billion.- Airline customers -Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg previously stressed that the company supports 1.8 million jobs in the United States.A delivery freeze would have direct consequences for the group, which traditionally receives 60 percent of the price upon delivery.With its difficulties of 2024, Boeing is already dipping heavily into cash flow that has been depleted by the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues.Besides concerns surrounding Beijing, Boeing will likely be squeezed by higher duties too.Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, said on Tuesday his company might postpone delivery of 25 Boeing jets expected from August if they cost more customs duties.Ryanair, a major Boeing customer, notably placed an order in May 2023 for 300 737 MAX 10s, including 150 firm orders, for a list price estimated at over $40 billion.Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, said last week that he does not intend to pay customs duties on the Airbus aircraft he expects this year.

Nvidia on Tuesday notified regulators that it expects a $5.5 billion hit this quarter due to a new US licensing requirement on the primary chip it can legally sell in China.US officials last week told Nvidia it must obtain licenses to export its H20 chips to China because of concerns they may be used in supercomputers there, the Silicon Valley company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.Shares of Nvidia, which have seen high volatility since US President Donald Trump made a major tariffs announcement on April 2, were down more than six percent in after-market trades.The new licensing rule applies to Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) with bandwidth similar to that of the H20.The United States had already restricted exports to China of Nvidia’s most sophisticated GPUs, tailored for powering top-end artificial intelligence models.Nvidia was told the licensing requirement on H20 chips would last indefinitely, it said in the filing.Nvidia’s current fiscal quarter ends on April 27.”First quarter results are expected to include up to approximately $5.5 billion of charges associated with H20 products for inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves,” Nvidia said in the filing.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said publicly that the AI chip powerhouse will balance legal compliance and technological advances under Trump, and that nothing will stop the global advancement of artificial intelligence.”We’ll continue to do that and we’ll be able to do that just fine,” the Taiwan-born entrepreneur told reporters late last year.Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden restricted Nvidia from selling some of its top AI chips to China, which the United States sees as a strategic competitor in technology.Global markets have been on a roller coaster since Trump’s April 2 announcement, declining sharply before partially recovering with his 90-day pause on the steepest tariff rates last week.Trump warned Sunday that no country would be getting “off the hook” on tariffs despite a 90-day reprieve on some levies, while also downplaying exemptions for Chinese technology.Most nations will now face a baseline 10 percent tariff for the near-three-month period — except China, which launched a tit-for-tat escalation.China has sought to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Washington, courting countries spooked by the global economic storm.

US President Donald Trump’s showdown with the judicial system came into the spotlight Tuesday as a judge grilled his administration over its failure to return a migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador.The Trump administration previously admitted that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living in the eastern state of Maryland and married to a US citizen, was deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”A judge has ordered Trump to “facilitate” his return, an order upheld by the Supreme Court, but his government has yet to request El Salvador return Abrego Garcia.Trump has alleged that Abrego Garcia is “an MS-13 Gang Member and Foreign Terrorist from El Salvador,” while Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that he was “engaged in human trafficking.”But Abrego Garcia’s family has continued to proclaim his innocence, and Judge Paula Xinis — before whom the Tuesday hearing was held — has said she had seen no evidence Abrego Garcia was a gang member.During the high-stakes hearing — widely seen as a test of the judiciary’s ability to tame Trump’s White House — Xinis slammed the administration for sharing “nothing” on its plans for Abrego Garcia’s return. “There’s so much daylight between what you’re actually saying and where this case is,” Xinis said, adding she would set in motion a process to discover if officials acted against court orders.If so, it would mark a tipping point for the Trump administration, which has for months flirted with open defiance of the judiciary following court setbacks to its right-wing agenda. Dozens of protestors carrying signs reading “Defend democracy” and “Bring Abrego Garcia home” gathered outside the courthouse in Maryland on Tuesday.They were joined by Abreago Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who urged Trump and his ally, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, to “stop playing political games with my husband.”Hoping to heap political pressure on Trump, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said he will travel to El Salvador on Wednesday to check on Abrego Garcia’s condition and discuss his return.”He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family,” Van Hollen, a Democrat, said on X.- ‘Alive and secure’ -Trump and his administration have repeatedly clashed with the courts since he returned to office in January, criticizing rulings that curb the president’s policies and power and attacking judges who issued them.”No District Court Judge, or any Judge, can assume the duties of the President of the United States. Only Crime and Chaos would result,” Trump said on Truth Social last month.Government attorneys last week rejected Xinis’s order to provide an update on Abrego Garcia’s status by Friday, saying that “foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines.”The Trump administration has since partially complied with the judge’s directives, providing a statement from a State Department official saying that Abrego Garcia is “alive and secure” in the Salvadoran prison.The Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing Tuesday that it would take Abrego Garcia into custody and deport him again if he returned to the United States.But El Salvador’s Bukele on Monday, sitting next to Trump at the White House, rejected calls to repatriate Abrego Garcia, saying: “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”The case represents the only time the administration has acknowledged wrongly deporting anyone, though the Justice Department subsequently fired the lawyer who made that concession, saying he had failed to vigorously defend the government position.