China announced that imported supplies from the United States used for the prevention and control of the new coronavirus will be exempt from tariffs and announced that it will carry out a plan to provide economic aid to companies to alleviate the effects of the crisis on the Chinese economy.
The official Xinhua news agency published this Saturday (01.02.20202) the decision taken on Saturday by the Ministry of Finance by which these products, which have been subject to additional tariffs during the trade war between China and the United States, will be exempt from tariffs between January 1 and the end of March.
Products that will enjoy tariff exemption include reagents, sterilization items, protective supplies, ambulances, disinfection vehicles and emergency command vehicles.
In addition, the taxes collected on these imported items before the announcement and since January 1 will be refunded.
The ministry recalled that as a result of the health crisis, The total number of deaths in China has now reached 304 and 14.380 infected, medical equipment and materials “are in short supply,” especially in Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak, and in other cities in Hubei province.
The exemption will also apply to donations of money and foreign products from the United States, as well as from the rest of the world."In order to help fight the coronavirus and amid enthusiastic donations from home and abroad, the ministry decided to implement a more preferential tariff policy," the statement said.
Since the outbreak of the health crisis, numerous nations, companies and institutions have shown their support for the Asian giant with monetary or material donations, some from the United States, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which donated 10 million dollars (9.013.000 euros) for relief and research material.
This is despite the fact that the Donald Trump administration announced on Friday that it will temporarily ban foreigners who have visited China in the last 14 days from entering the country to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
As a result of the crisis, the country has extended the Chinese New Year holiday by one week, with the consequent halt in production in factories, while thousands of businesses are being affected by the paralysis of cities since the main advice from the Government to prevent the spread is for people to stay at home.
China and the United States are in full negotiations to end the trade war between the two powers and a few weeks ago they concluded the first phase of the dialogue with an agreement, conversations that could now be clouded by this health crisis declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global emergency.
In addition to this fiscal measure, The People's Bank of China (PBOC) and several other departments announced on Saturday that a series of measures will be carried out to mitigate the consequences of the crisis, which experts say could be disastrous, especially for small businesses.
“More efforts will be made to strengthen credit support for the manufacturing sector, small and micro enterprises, as well as private companies” with lower lending rates, more credit loans, and medium- and long-term loans to help the hardest-hit companies get through.
«Payments may be deferred during the outbreak, while late payments will not affect credit records", the organization says.
As a result of the crisis, the country has extended the Chinese New Year holiday by one week, with the consequent halt in production in factories, while thousands of businesses are being affected by the paralysis of cities since the main advice from the Government to prevent the spread is for people to stay at home.
Source: Reuters
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