By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Commerce informed GE Aerospace on Thursday that it was once again allowed to ship jet engines to China’s COMAC, lifting license suspensions issued several weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the matter.
GE did not respond to an email request for comment, nor did the Commerce Department.
The license suspensions were among a wide swathe of new restrictions imposed on U.S. exports to China in recent weeks, as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies moved from retaliatory tariffs to disrupting each other’s supply chains.
Restrictions also have been lifted this week on other sectors, including chip design software and ethane, in a sign of further de-escalating trade tensions.
The licenses for GE Aerospace affect engines for China’s state-owned aerospace manufacturer COMAC, which is developing commercial planes to compete with dominant planemakers Airbus and Boeing.
The licenses are to ship Leap-1C engines to COMAC for its C919 single-aisle aircraft, and GE’s CF34 engine for COMAC’s C909 regional jet, according to the person familiar, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The LEAP 1-C engines are the product of a joint venture between GE Aerospace and France’s Safran.
The C919 is made in China but many of its components come from overseas.
Reuters could not immediately determine which other aerospace companies may have been affected by the Commerce Department’s unwinding of restrictions.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
