IANS | 15 Dec, 2018
China on Friday said it will suspend additional tariffs on imports of
American-made cars and automobile parts for three months starting
January 1 in an attempt to negotiate a trade deal with the US.
Citing
the meeting earlier this month between US President Donald Trump and
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the Chinese Finance Ministry said that it
will remove the additional 25 per cent tariffs on 144 American-made
vehicles and auto parts and five per cent tariffs on another 67 auto
items between January 1 to March 31.
This will bring China's
tariffs on American-made cars to 15 per cent, which is what Beijing
applies on all automobiles imported to the country, the ministry said in
a statement on its website.
China increased tariffs on
American-made cars to 40 per cent in July, in response to the first
round of US tariffs imposed on Chinese imports that month.
The
Finance Ministry described the decision to remove the tariffs as a
"concrete action" aimed at helping to bring about a "mutually beneficial
new Sino-US trade order", CNN reported.
The decision to cut
tariffs followed a 90-day trade truce declared by Trump and Xi on
December 1 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina. The truce
delayed the increase in US tariffs planned on January 1 on Chinese
products worth $200 billion to allow room to negotiate a trade
agreement.
The ministry also expressed hope that Beijing and
Washington would speed up talks to remove all additional tariffs imposed
by both countries.
