13th August, 2019
Amidst recession fears, the Trump White House trade office announced Tuesday that it would exempt Chinese cellphones, laptops, toys, footwear and clothing from a new round of tariffs going into force on 1 September.
It will also delay import taxes on others until mid-December.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement it would remove an unspecified number of products from a list of Chinese goods that will be subject to a 10 percent tariff starting Sept. 1.
“Certain products are being removed from the tariff list based on health, safety, national security and other factors and will not face additional tariffs,” USTR said.
The full list of exempted products will be released later Tuesday, the office added, according to a report by thehill.com.
USTR also said it would delay tariffs on “cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, certain toys, computer monitors, and certain items of footwear and clothing,” until Dec. 15.
The White House decision to narrow the scope and delay the impact of President Trump’s trade war comes after weeks of deepening anxiety about the state of the global economy.
Economists at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Moody’s Analytics have warned in the past week of the rising chances of a recession between now and the 2020 election, blaming Trump’s trade policy in part.
The British economy shrank for the first time since 2012 in the second quarter, according to data released last week, while growth in China fell to its lowest level in nearly three decades.
And U.S. businesses and farmers have pleaded with Trump for relief amid the rising costs and tensions of his trade war with China.