China to halve import tariffs on more than 1,700 US goods
China says it will halve additional tariffs levied against some imports from the United States, following the signing of a preliminary trade deal with Washington.
The Chinese Finance Ministry made the announcement in a statement on Thursday, saying Beijing would halve additional tariffs levied against 1,717 products imported from the US last year, and that the tariff reductions would take effect from 0501 GMT on February 14.
The ministry did not state the value of the goods affected by the decision but said the new decision would cut tariffs to 5% from 10% previously, and others would be lowered to 2.5% from 5%.
China said the next adjustments would depend on how Sino-US trade ties would evolve following the “Phase one” agreement, expressing hope that the two sides would work to completely eliminate all tariff increases.
China’s move is also seen as a measure to help the country’s economy, hit by a new coronavirus outbreak, as Beijing has already suspended tariffs on some other US imports that can be used for the treatment of patients.
The “Phase One” deal had been announced in December 2019, as part of a bid to end the months-long trade war between the world’s two largest economies, which has roiled markets and hit global growth.
The agreement, signed in January, includes pledges from China to import an additional 200 billion dollars’ worth of US products over two years, above the levels purchased in 2017, including an additional 32 billion dollars in agricultural goods. It also includes pledges to improve protections of US intellectual property.
The US has pledged to slash in half tariffs of 15 percent that were imposed on about 120 billion dollars’ worth of Chinese consumer goods, such as clothing, in September.
But tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in goods remain in place, on two-thirds of the over 500 billion dollars in imports from China.
Trump initiated the trade war on China last year. The two countries have since imposed billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs on each other’s goods.
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