Trump Suspended Sales of Jet Engines to China

The court battles over tariffs got all the attention this week but that wasn’t the only sign the Trump administration is still engaged in a trade war with China. On Wednesday the administration suspended the sale of jet engines and some high tech chips and software as well. The target of these new restrictions seems to be China’s first passenger jet, the C919.

The Trump administration has suspended some sales to China of critical U.S. technologies, including those related to jet engines, semiconductors and certain chemicals and machinery. The move is a response to China’s recent restrictions on exports of critical minerals to the United States, a decision by Beijing that has threatened to cripple U.S. company supply chains, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The new limits are pushing the world’s largest economies a step closer toward supply chain warfare, as Washington and Beijing try to flex their power over essential economic components in an attempt to gain the upper hand in an intensifying trade conflict…

One person familiar with the matter, who declined to be named to discuss private conversations, said the Commerce Department had suspended some licenses that allowed American companies to sell products and technology to COMAC, a Chinese state-owned aerospace manufacturer, for use in its C919 aircraft.