China’s Customs Tariff Commission on Thursday announced it will halve existing tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports as part of the “phase one” trade agreement signed between China and the U.S. on Jan. 15.
In a statement on China’s Ministry of Finance website, the move will “promote the healthy and stable development of Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations.”
The cuts include reducing certain existing 10% tariffs to 5% and 5% tariffs to 2.5%. The tariffs were put in place by the Chinese government on Sept. 1, 2019, and the cuts will take effect at 1:01 p.m. (time zone unspecified) on Feb. 14.
The Chinese government said the U.S. government on Jan. 16 had announced that it will halve its 15% additional tariffs on Chinese products worth about $120 billion on Feb. 14.
China had already suspended implementing additional tariffs on U.S. products on Dec 15.
The Jan. 15 trade deal committed China to purchasing more than $200 billion in U.S. goods, which includes $50 billion in farm products, $75 billion in manufactured goods, $50 billion in energy commodities and $40 billion to $50 billion in services.
China and the U.S. expect to further reduce import tariffs on each other’s products when they begin negotiating “phase two” of the trade agreement early this year.
