Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday he is working with the Chinese government to get back several planes the company has sent to the Asian country, as the U.S. and China engage in a tariff war.

The revelation comes as the U.S. looks to ease the trade war with China, where the U.S. has imposed 145% tariffs. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will "substantially" lower the tariffs but will not zero it out.

Ortberg told CNBC in an interview that three planes were sent to China, and two of them have already been returned. The third is in the process of being sent back to the United States.

“[China has], in fact, stopped taking delivery of aircraft due to the tariff environment,” Ortberg said. “We have roughly 50 airplanes in our plan this year going into China, so we’re going to be pretty pragmatic with what we do here for those airplanes that haven’t been built yet.”

The CEO said the company could direct the planes to other potential buyers because there are "plenty" of people wanting to purchase Boeing planes, and said he would reach a decision on other sales soon.

“I’m not going to let this derail the recovery of our … company," Ortberg said.

Ortberg also said that there have been some downsides to the tariffs, but expressed confidence that the company would survive the current environment. 

“The bigger issue is making sure that our supply chain stays healthy and we continue to see the supply chain making the deliveries and the tariff environment doesn’t slow things down in the supply chain,” Ortberg said, adding that Boeing is also working to help its suppliers survive the tariffs.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.