Boeing CEO warns isolation will hurt trade as US election looms

Boeing Co.’s chief executive officer warned that a turn toward isolation in US politics could hamper free trade and damage the economy as the nation prepares for a pivotal presidential election. 

“We’re a company that relies on trade,” outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun said in an onstage interview at the Berlin Aviation Summit on Tuesday. “I’ll be the first to acknowledge that that seems to be going in the wrong direction and has been for quite some time.”

Calhoun didn’t express a preference between the presumptive nominees, incumbent President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Boeing, one of the largest US exporters, has seen rival Airbus SE take the lead in sales to China in recent years as trade tensions simmer between the world’s two biggest economies.

Calhoun spoke as Boeing works to restart plane deliveries to China, which have been halted as regulators scrutinize the design of a new cockpit voice recorder for its mainstay 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner models. The issue has hampered Boeing’s effort to empty a backlog of finished planes held for Chinese airlines while the company addresses production issues that have slowed its factories.

Calhoun said he’d continue to lobby for free trade and expressed support for a strong NATO, the US-Europe defense coalition that Trump has criticized. Biden, for his part, has hiked tariffs on Chinese imports including electric vehicles.

The CEO said he’s worried that isolation will damage economies in the long run. 

His concerns echo those raised by other large exporters, including German carmakers, that protectionist policies will poison the marketplace for companies reliant on selling their goods abroad. 

“Isolation then breeds disenchantment; disenchantment ultimately breeds political turnover,” the executive said. “That’s the world I worry about with respect to isolation, and I don’t like any of the signs I see.”