Boeing jet returns to US from China amid tariff war

A Boeing jet earmarked for China was returning to the United States on Friday, flight tracking data showed, as the planemaker’s flagship delivery plant outside Shanghai was drawn into a deepening tariff war between Beijing and Washington.

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The return of one of several jets waiting for final work and handover to a Chinese carrier at the completion centre in Zhoushan is the latest sign of disruption to deliveries from a breakdown in the industry’s decades-old duty-free status.

In a sign that Boeing was preparing for normal business just weeks before US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on April 2, three new 737 MAX planes had flown from Boeing in Seattle to Zhoushan in March.