Monday, October 1, 2018

Even more winning! China announces tariff cuts on 'wide range of products'

Even more winning! China announces tariff cuts on 'wide range of products'

By Thomas Lifson

No doubt, Trump-haters will portray this move by China as minor and meaningless, for they cannot admit any success on the part
of the 45th president of the United States. And so far, details are lacking, but this bulletin from Reuters reports that a "wide range of products" are to benefit from Chinese tariff cuts:
China will cut import tariffs on textile products and metals, including steel products, to 8.4 percent from 11.5 percent, effective Nov. 1, the finance ministry said on Sunday. ...
Earlier in July, China reduced import tariffs on a range of consumer items including apparel, cosmetics, home appliances, and fitness products to fulfil pledges to further open China's consumer market.
Import tariffs on wood and paper products, minerals and gemstones will be cut to 5.4 percent from 6.6 percent, the ministry also said in its statement.
Average import tariffs on over fifteen hundred products will be lowered to 7.8 percent from 10.5 percent, the ministry said.
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Container ships may now have more cargo to haul to China (Image via NOAA).To be sure, China's high tariffs on manufactured automobiles and many other products remain in place. But these are not merely
symbolic. China is pushing this for P.R. reasons, but the overall impact is represented by this figure:
The overall tariff level will be reduced to 7.5 percent in 2018 from 9.8 percent in 2017 as a result, the cabinet has said.
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That cut is a 23.5% percent cut in the average tariff level.

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