China unveils new lists of US items excluded from additional tariffs

Feb 21, 2020
Beijing: China on Friday unveiled the first set of lists of US goods to be excluded from the second round of tariff counter-measures against Washington.

The exemption, which covers two lists of goods, will be effective from February 28, 2019 to February 27, 2021, Xinhua news agency quoted the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council as saying.

The first list allows affected import enterprises to apply for refunds of collected duties within six months from Friday.

The second list allows firms to enjoy the exemption but does not allow tariff refunds.

Next, the Commission will continue to work on the exemption process and release subsequent lists in due course, it added.

The development comes after the Commission halved additional tariffs on US imports, including pork, beef, soybeans and whiskey, from February 14.

Beijing had said that the measure was a response to Washington’s decision to reduce the tariff from 15 to 7.5 per cent on $120 billion worth of Chinese goods, Efe news reported.

The announcements came weeks after the US and China signed the first phase of a bilateral agreement in Washington to end a long-running bitter trade dispute between them.

In the agreement signed in Washington last month, China pledged to boost its imports of US goods and services by $200 billion over the next two years in return of the US revoking some tariffs imposed on Chinese goods.

The imports to China include $32 billion in additional agricultural purchases, $52 billion in energy products and $78 billion in additional manufactured goods.

The trade war between the US and China has been ongoing since March 2018 that has led to escalated tensions between the two economies with diverse ramifications apart from the economic ones.

The dispute goes beyond bilateral relations and has had global consequences.IANS