China has ordered its airlines to stop taking Boeing jet deliveries in the country’s latest move to combat President Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs.
The country has also directed Chinese carriers to pause purchases of aircraft materials from U.S. companies, Bloomberg reports. The directive comes as China announced that it raised tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125%.
“The US alternately raising abnormally high tariffs on China has become a numbers game, which has no practical economic significance, and will become a joke in the history of the world economy,” a Commerce Ministry spokesperson said in a statement. “If the US continues to impose tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the US, China will ignore it.”
“Even if the US continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense and will become a joke in the history of world economy,” a statement from China’s Ministry of Finance read. “At the current tariff level, there is no market acceptance for US goods exported to China. If the US continues to play the tariff numbers game, China will ignore it. However, if the US insists on continuing to substantially infringe on China’s interests, China will resolutely counterattack and fight to the end.”
Commenting on the country’s halt on Boeing jet orders, Trump said China “reneged on the big Boeing deal.”
China has also paused the export of heavy rare earth metals and magnets in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs. “The restrictions apply to seven medium and heavy rare earths: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report. “The United States is particularly vulnerable for these supply chains,” CSIS noted, explaining the metals are used in defense technologies.
