China Halves Tariffs On $75B Worth US Goods

The People's Republic of China is cutting tariffs on hundreds of the United States imports worth about $75 billion by half, the country's Ministry of Finance said in a statement Thursday.

What Happened

The goods whose import was taxed at 10% will be reduced to 5%; the goods taxed at 5% would see 2.5% tariffs starting February 14 at 1:01 p.m., according to a CNBC translation of the statement.

The tariffs were imposed on hundreds of U.S. goods in September last year as retaliation for President Donald Trump's imposition of similar tariffs on Chinese imports.

The world's two largest economies called a truce in their trade war last month, signing the much-touted phase one of their trade deal and mutually agreeing on cutting back some tariffs.

The U.S. is set to similarly half tariffs on some $120 billion Chinese imports on February 14 from 15% to 7.5%, CNBC noted.

Why It Matters

The finance ministry said that the motive was to "advance the healthy and stable development of China-U.S. trade," as translated by CNBC.

It's unclear if that's the exact motive of the Chinese government for rolling back the tariffs, but the decision comes at a time when the Chinese economy is grappling with the novel coronavirus outbreak.