China announced on Tuesday (12.05.2020) a new list of 79 products to those who, when imported from the United States to the Asian country, will exempt from additional tariffs imposed by Beijing in the context of its long-running trade war with Washington.
This is the second batch of tariff exemptions published by China after the one in September 2019, which included agricultural raw materials such as soybeans or pork - Beijing has pledged to increase its purchases of these types of goods from the United States - or petrochemical products.
The new list includes, among others, rare earth minerals, aircraft radar equipment, semiconductor parts, medical disinfectants, various precious metals, or chemical and petrochemical products.
According to a statement released by the Chinese Ministry of Finance, the cancellation of these additional taxes will come into force on May 19 and will be active for one year.
Importers wishing to benefit from this initiative must apply to the General Customs Administration within the next six months.
This announcement comes at a time when conflicts between Beijing and Washington have intensified. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, which seems to be under control in China while in the United States it continues to cause a high number of cases and deaths, the main visible heads of the Government, starting with the president, Donald Trump, blame the Asian country for the appearance of the virus.
Trump recently threatened to break the so-called "phase one" trade agreement between the two countries, signed in January, if China does not fulfill its promises to increase its imports of American products.
The US president has also ruled out renegotiating the conditions of that pact., which involves halving (from 15% to 7,5%) the additional tariffs imposed on Chinese products valued at $120.000 billion.
However, the pandemic and the problems it has caused in global supply and production chains have meant that China is still far from reaching the agreed purchasing figures.
Meanwhile, the negotiating teams of both powers continue to negotiate: on the 8th, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He held talks again with the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer.
Although, as usual, few details of the conversation or the state of trade relations were released, Chinese state media did report that "both sides agreed (…) to create a favorable atmosphere and conditions for the implementation of the 'first phase' of the trade agreement between China and the United States and to strive for positive results."
Source: Reuters
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