Daily Management Review

China-US Agrees To Phase Out Tariffs Imposed By Both: Beijing


11/07/2019




China-US Agrees To Phase Out Tariffs Imposed By Both: Beijing
The Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday that the tariffs imposed by both the countries during their months-long trade war would be lifted in a phased manner and an agreement to this effect has been arrived at by China and the United States. No specific timetable was however provided by the ministry. 
 
It is important for both the United States and China to simultaneously cancel some tariffs on each other's goods before the parties could sign the so called “phase one” of the trade deal because cancellation of tariffs was an important condition for any trade agreement, said Chinese Commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng.
 
Analysts are expecting that the US will cancel a scheduled tariff set to take effect from December 15 on Chinese goods worth $156 billion including cell phones, laptop computers and toys as a part of the interim US-China trade deal.
 
“The trade war started with tariffs, and should end with the cancellation of tariffs,” Feng told a regular news briefing. He added that in order to reach a “phase one” deal, it is important that the proportion of tariffs cancelled should be the same for both sides. However he said that the number of tariffs to be cancelled is non-negotiable. No further details were provided by him.
 
“In the past two weeks, the lead negotiators from both sides have had serious and constructive discussions on resolving various core concerns appropriately. Both sides have agreed to cancel additional tariffs in different phases, as both sides make progress in their negotiations,” he said.
 
According to a previous report by news agency Reuters, Beijing had demand that the 15 per cent import tariffs on about $125 billion worth of Chinese goods that has been in effect since September 1 this year by Washington needed to be scrapped. China also expected the US to give some relief from the 25 per cent tariffs on about $250 billion of Chinese imports that included a wide range of products - from machinery and semiconductors to furniture, and one that had been imposed earlier. 
 
Washington was being pressed to “remove all tariffs as soon as possible”, said reports published earlier. Analysts and experts expect that the US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will sing the ‘phase one’ of the trade deal sometime this month at a yet-to-be-decided venue.
 
Reports have claimed that both sides have suggested many venues for the meeting between the two leaders who were originally slated to meet and sign the partial trade deal in mid-November at the summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Chile. However both sides are now looking for an alternative venue for the meeting because that summit was cancelled by Chile because of wide ranging and violent protests there.
 
According to most recent reports, London is being thought of as a possible venue for the meeting of the two leaders where they could get together to sign the deal following a NATO summit which will be attended by Trump from Dec. 3-4. No comment was made by Feng about the possible venue of the meeting of the two leaders.
 
(Source:www.thehindu.com)