China Announces Suspension Of Additional Tariffs On IS Cars And Parts


12/14/2018



Following the agreement of a temporary 90 day truce to the trade war between the United States and China, Beijing has announced suspension of additional tariffs on cars and auto parts made in the US and imported into China for a period of three months starting from January 1.
 
The two top leaders form the two largest economies of the world - US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping had agreed to the trade war truce for 90 days following their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires on December 1. The two parties agreed to hold negotiations on trade in the 90 day period to try and resolve the ongoing trade war between them.
 
The hiking or imposition of additional import tariffs by 25 per cent on cars made in the US over the 15 per cent that is in place for all foreign manufactured cars, had raised the price of US cars in China and were a part of the retaliatory tariffs that Beijing had imposed in response to the US imposing additional import tariffs on Chinese goods worth billions of dollars.
 
"Suspension of the tariffs is a concrete measure to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state," said the announcement made by the State Council's Tariff Commission Office.
 
Apart from suspension of additional tariffs on US made cars, China also announced suspension of the 5 percent import tariffs on 67 other auto items between Jan. 1 and March 31, the finance ministry of the country said in a statement on its website.
 
The statement also said that the Ministry of Finance is hopeful that the US can China would hasten the trade talks to ultimately remove all additional tariffs that both have imposed on each other’s goods.
 
This announcement was preceded by China making its first significant purchase of soybeans from the US ever since the Trump Xi meeting.
 
Some analysts believe that the suspension of additional tariffs on US cars and China’s purchase of soybeans could be the first signs of the thawing of the acrimonious trade war between the China and the United States.
 
Following the meeting between Trump and Xi in Argentina, the US had also announced a three month suspension of the planned increment in import tariffs to 25 per cent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods set to begin on January 1.
 
Earlier this week on Tuesday, a member of the Trump administration had announced the intention of China to bring down the additional tariffs on US made cars and auto parts from 40 per cent to 15 per cent.
 
The Trump official said that a telephone call between U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He was used to convey China’s decision to cut down additional tariffs.
 
The additional tariffs on US made cares were imposed by Beijing earlier this year after the US had imposed additional; tariffs of 27.5 per cent on Chinese vehicles.
 
(Source:www.indiatimes.com)