Boeing pushing for open, fair trade as US slaps metals tariffs

Bloomberg

Boeing Co. said it will push for open and fair trade after President Donald Trump announced duties on steel and aluminum imports from some of America’s allies on national security grounds.
“We’ve done a preliminary analysis and we don’t see it having a material effect on our financials,” sales chief Randy Tinseth said in an interview during a gathering of airline industry leaders in Sydney. “We’re going to continue to advocate that open and fair trade is the path we’d want to see the market headed.”
The European Union, Mexico and Canada have said they plan to slap billions of dollars in tit-for-tat tariffs on US goods, threatening a full-blown trade war. The tensions have clouded a benign outlook for the global economy, which is on track to grow at its fastest pace since 2011 this year and next, according to the International Monetary Fund. Boeing sources 90 percent of its aluminum from the US, Tinseth said.
The US and Europe, typically closely cooperating trade partners, are also sparring over plane manufacturing after the World Trade Organization this year found that Airbus had failed to sufficiently roll back subsidies for its two biggest aircraft.
While the US is threatening tariffs if an adequate settlement can’t be reached, the EU is holding out for the result of its counter case against Boeing in which the EU is challenging billions of dollars in US tax incentives for the Chicago-based planemaker. The rally in crude oil prices has improved the case for new and more efficient airplanes, the Boeing executive said on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association conference. Fleet replacement may almost double in 2022-23, climbing to 4 percent of global fleet from a typical rate of 2 to 3 percent, he said.