13th September, 2019
China’s state news agency, on Friday, reported that China will exempt U.S. agricultural products from added tariffs as Chinese firms purchased vast amounts of U.S. soybeans shortly ahead of high-level trade negotiations.
The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council will exclude some agricultural products such as soybeans and pork from the additional tariffs on U.S. goods.
This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump said that the promised tariff hike on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods had been postponed from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15.
Earlier, the Chinese government’s Customs Tariff Commission published two lists of U.S. products to be exempted from additional import duties for the period from Sept. 17, 2019, to Sept. 16, 2020. The development comes as the U.S. and China are preparing for a new round of talks set to take place in Washington in October.
The two countries have been engaged in a trade conflict since 2018, when the Trump administration imposed the first round of its additional trade duties on China, prompting a reciprocal response from Beijing.
Soybeans constitute a major portion of U.S. exports to China. The sales drastically plummeted amid the trade dispute, hurting U.S. farmers by dropping 74 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year.
Beijing was forced to turn to Latin American countries to satisfy its need for agricultural product.