China Halves Imports Tariffs On $75 Billion Worth Of US Products

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.

Image Sourced from Pixabay