(Yicai) June 9 -- Boeing has resumed aircraft shipments to China following a cooling of trade tensions. Deliveries had been suspended since late April, after China imposed a high border tax on most goods imported from the United States in retaliation for jacked-up US tariffs.

A new Boeing 737 Max departed Seattle for China on June 7, Xiamen Airlines told Yicai. The plane should have been handed over to the Chinese airline around mid-April but had to return to the US after being rejected by the buyer due to steep tariffs at the time.

After the trade spat erupted in early April, Seattle-based Boeing faced an additional tariff of 125 percent on aircraft exported to China, creating severe cost pressures for Chinese airlines. Xiamen Airlines and national flag carrier Air China returned three 737 Max within a week, while other domestic airlines also held off taking deliveries.

China and the US announced on May 12 that they had agreed to lower import tariffs on most of each other's products for 90 days. The adjustments took effect on May 14, with China trimming its tariffs on US goods to 10 percent from 125 percent.

As part of that round of negotiations, China also fully exempted US-made aircraft and certain engines from additional tariffs, meaning Chinese airlines could continue to import Boeing planes under the previous 5 percent tariff rate for narrow-body aircraft and the 1 percent levy for wide-body aircraft, according to sources in the industry.

Besides the three 737 Max getting delivered, Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines plans to receive a 787 passenger jet and China Cargo Airlines, a unit of Eastern Air Logistics, will take a freight plane from Boeing this month, the pair told Yicai.

China was once Boeing’s biggest overseas market. At its peak in 2018, Boeing shipped nearly 200 aircraft to China, including 181 737s and more than 20 wide-body aircraft and accounting for one-quarter of its total global deliveries.

But the company handed over just 13 aircraft to China between 2020 and 2023 after its 737 Max jets were grounded following two fatal crashes. Although that rose to 54 last year, it only equaled half of the shipments made by its biggest rival, European plane maker Airbus.

Boeing has delivered 20 aircraft to Chinese airlines this year, with plans to deliver 29 more by Dec. 31, according to fleet data provider Cirium. That now seems uncertain. In comparison, Airbus plans to ship 136 planes to China this year and 148 next year.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev