US companies most vulnerable to China's retaliatory import tariffs

China's move to impose 34% tariffs on all US goods in a tit-for-tat blow against US President Donald Trump is set to roil industries from aviation to agriculture.

Here are some of the US sectors and companies that are set to take the biggest hit:

PLANES

China's retaliatory tariffs are set to hit Boeing hard, making its planes far more expensive than those of rivals Airbus and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China.

While Beijing did not impose tariffs on Boeing during Trump's first trade war with China, its sales and deliveries to China plummeted after 2019 following two fatal crashes of MAX 8 jets and amid intensifying tensions between Washington and Beijing over issues ranging from technology to national security.

The import freeze ended in January 2024 but the imports only resumed in full force six months later.

The country's top three airlines - Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines - have plans to take delivery of 45, 53 and 81 Boeing planes, respectively, between 2025-2027, which could now be impacted by the higher prices.

SEMICONDUCTORS

China imports $10 billion worth of chips from the United States annually. About $8 billion of these are central processing units (CPUs) assembled by Intel in the US, according to Bernstein analysts.

Such Intel CPUs are widely used in laptops and servers. China was Intel's largest market in 2024, accounting for 29% of its revenue, up from 27% in 2023.

US memory chipmaker Micron could also face some impact as some Micron chips sold in China are imported from the United States, though the company has production facilities in China and other countries.

While Chinese companies are big buyers of Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips, these imports are not affected by China's tariffs as they are produced and assembled in Taiwan by contract chip manufacturer TSMC.

FARM EQUIPMENT

For the US farm equipment sector, China's 34% retaliatory tariffs add to an earlier 10% tariff Beijing placed on the industry in March, impacting companies such as Caterpillar, Deere & Co and AGCO.

AGRICULTURE

The US agricultural sector is set to be among the industries that are the worst hit by China's retaliatory tariffs as China is the largest market for US agricultural products.

In addition, China on Friday suspended import qualifications for sorghum from Chinese-owned C&D (USA) Inc. citing food safety problems and poultry meat and bone meal from American Proteins, Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Darling Ingredients.

It also suspended imports of poultry products from Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Coastal Processing.