On Saturday, December 1, 2018, the President of the United States agreed to suspend the increase in tariffs scheduled for January 1, 2019. The White House issued a statement, which included the following: “… President Trump has agreed that on January 1, 2019, he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of product at the 10% rate, and not raise it to 25% at this time.”
Over the next 90 days, American and Chinese officials will continue to negotiate lingering disagreements on technology transfer, intellectual property and agriculture. The statement continued, “Both parties agree that they will endeavor to have this transaction completed within the next 90 days. If at the end of this period of time, the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10% tariffs will be raised to 25%.”
During the past year the U.S.A. has placed additional tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods pursuant to the Section 301 U.S. response to China’s unfair trade practices related to the forced transfer of American technology and intellectual property. The U.S.A. has implemented these additional tariffs in three list releases. The first list, which went into effect on July 6, 2018, placed a 25% additional tariff on approximately $34 billion of imports from China. The second list placed a 25% additional tariff on approximately $16 billion of imports from China, effective August 23, 2018. The third list was scheduled to be implemented in two phases.
- Phase 1, which went into effect September 24, 2018, placed a 10% additional tariff on $200 billion of China goods (List 3).
- Phase 2, which was scheduled for implementation January 1, 2019, was to increase the additional tariffs on the China goods specified in Phase 1 to 25%.
Phase 2 of List 3 has now been suspended for 90 days as a result of the weekend meeting between the U.S.A. and China.
For more information please contact your local MIQ Logistics representative