RENTON, Wash. — Experts warn that tariffs may pose a risk to Boeing’s recovery fourteen months after the company’s reputation took a hit after a door plug blew out from one of its planes. Between now and then, the company has named a new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who reported billions of dollars in losses, production stopped because of a strike, and more than 2,200 of its 66,000 Washington workers were laid off in January.
Despite all of that, workers feel there is momentum inside the companies’ factories.
“I feel like we are going in the correct direction so to speak. We’ve ramped up production, with limitations of course,” said John Jones, a Boeing employee for two years.
“I feel like it’s better. There’s a higher focus on quality than anything else,” Jones continued.
Boeing supplies parts for planes from all over the country, especially from Canada, parts that are now subject to 25% tariffs from the Trump Administration. The worse impact could be felt on the other end of production, according to Jacob Vigdor, a professor of Governance and Public Policy at the University of Washington.
“We are extremely vulnerable on retaliatory tariffs on aircraft,” Vigdor said.
Vigdor points to tariffs turning Canadian and Mexican airlines into competition as part of the issue. He’s especially concerned about China, the nation that’s currently buying the most airplanes in the world. China has responded to the United States’ broad tariffs with targeted tariffs on farm goods, though Beijing leaders expressed their willingness to go further Wednesday.
“You’re an airline in China, you want to expand your fleet, you’re going to get bids,” Vigdor explained. “If I import an airplane from the U.S. it’s going to cost me more so maybe I go with Airbus or maybe I go with a domestic Chinese manufacturer.”
After a sharp fall Monday and Tuesday, Boeing’s stock rebounded slightly Wednesday on Day 3 of the tariffs.
“Because our state is so diverse with its economy and the things that drive our economy, I think of all the states, we will be better off,” said Rep. Joel McEntire, a Republican representing Southwest Washington in Olympia.
McEntire admits he’s not a fan of tariffs as he prefers a free market and the free flow of goods, which he says is restricted by the trade-time tax. He says it’s about the longer-term results that matter most to him.
“For a long time, we have had presidents who didn’t really use a tariff as a weapon, as an arm twist for other nations when it comes to trade,” McEntire said. “So, we don’t necessarily have to get cheaper goods for a drop of tariffs from other countries, sometimes we can get other things.”
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