The Financial Times reported on Friday that shares of the American aircraft maker Boeing had fallen after U.S. President Donald Trump announced, during his visit to China, that Beijing would buy 200 Boeing aircraft, at a time when markets were expecting a “giant deal” following the summit between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.
According to the newspaper, Boeing’s stock closed Thursday down 4.7%, after Fox News aired an interview with Trump in which he discussed a contract for Boeing planes, stating that it had been concluded during his visit to Beijing. The company, however, released no official comment on the transaction.
Reuters cited Chim Lee, chief analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, who said that “the summit reassured markets strategically, but proved disappointing in terms of concrete economic results.”
No major trade agreement was announced at the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing.
Expectations for larger contracts
During his visit to China, Trump was accompanied by several leaders of major American companies, including Kelly Ortberg, president of Boeing, billionaire Elon Musk, head of Tesla and SpaceX, Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, and Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, a company specializing in semiconductor chips.
The Financial Times indicated that Trump and his team had discussed, before the Beijing summit, the possibility of concluding deals in several strategic sectors, notably oil, gas, agricultural products such as soybeans, as well as aerospace.
In his interview with Fox News, Trump spoke of China’s agreement to buy more soybeans and oil from the United States, without giving precise figures. On his side, the Chinese leader stated that “the doors of China are open to trade and will be even more open,” without providing further details.
The newspaper also cited Jefferies investment bank analysts, who said that Boeing was negotiating with China a “massive order” that could reach 500 aircraft.
During Trump’s previous visit to China in 2017, during his first term, an agreement had been reached for the sale of 300 Boeing aircraft to China, worth more than $37 billion. Investors were therefore expecting a larger contract at the latest Beijing summit.
No agreement on trade terms
In the same vein, Reuters indicated that Trump left Beijing after a two-day visit, without announcing a “major breakthrough” regarding the trade terms between the two countries, nor on the role that China could play in the war with Iran.
The agency cited Jamieson Greer, the U.S. representative to Commerce, who said in an interview with Bloomberg that no agreement had been reached on extending the trade truce between Beijing and Washington. It had been obtained during the last meeting between Trump and Xi, in South Korea, six months earlier, and had allowed tariffs to be brought to their current levels.
Reuters also reported that Xi Jinping had, in a closed session, addressed Trump with a firm warning, stressing that a mismanagement of the Taiwan issue, a major priority for Beijing, could lead to a conflict.
The agency added that the Chinese Foreign Ministry had issued, on Friday, before Trump’s departure from Beijing, a statement clearly expressing its displeasure at the continuation of the war with Iran.
In this statement, Chinese diplomacy asserted that “this war should never have happened and nothing justifies its continuation,” adding that “China supports efforts to reach a peace agreement in a war that has disrupted energy supplies and affected the global economy.”
