BEIJING, May 20 (Reuters) – China will buy 200 Boeing jets and seek an extension of the trade agreement with the U.S. that was reached in Kuala Lumpur last year, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday.
The statement marked Beijing’s first confirmation of the Boeing order.
U.S. President Donald Trump visited China last week for a summit with President Xi Jinping, in a trip that produced a series of trade pledges including the Boeing purchase and agricultural market access.
Trump said after the Beijing summit that the Boeing purchases could rise to as many as 750 planes, adding that they would have GE Aerospace engines.
The U.S. will provide China with supply guarantees for aircraft engine parts and components under the Boeing deal, the Chinese ministry said.
The two sides will seek reciprocal tariff cuts on $30 billion or more of goods each, it said, adding that U.S. tariffs on China must not exceed the level set under the Kuala Lumpur arrangement.
China and the U.S. reached an agreement in Kuala Lumpur before a Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea in October that extended their tariff truce for a year.
The deal included U.S. tariff reductions on Chinese products and a pause in Beijing’s new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets.
(Reporting by Ethan Wang and Liz Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Thomas Derpinghaus)
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