China Threatens Tariff Hike on Virtually All Remaining U.S. Goods

China has announced plans to increase tariffs on more than 5,000 additional goods imported from the U.S. if President Trump goes ahead with a 10 percent tariff hike on $300 billion worth of products from China. Press sources note that this move will result in nearly all Chinese imports from the U.S. being subject to higher tariffs.

China said it will levy additional tariffs of 5 or 10 percent on a total of 5,078 U.S. items with an import value of about $75 billion. These tariffs will take effect Sept. 1 for roughly one-third of the affected goods and Dec. 15 for the remainder. These are the same dates the Trump administration plans to increase tariffs on two groups of Chinese products.

In addition, China plans to impose tariffs of 25 percent and 5 percent on imports of U.S. automobiles and auto parts, respectively, beginning Dec. 15.

Beijing signaled that it will accept tariff exclusion requests for specific products on the two new lists from firms in China that import, produce, or use such goods or their industry associations. However, it is unclear when such requests may be submitted. Exclusion requests for items on China’s List 1 and List 2 were due July 5 and requests for products on four other lists may be submitted between Sept. 2 and Oct. 18.

The U.S. and China still say they are planning to hold talks in Washington, D.C., in September in an effort to conclude a trade agreement that could lead to a reduction or elimination of the tariffs the two sides have imposed on each other’s goods...

This was excerpted from 26 August 2019 edition of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report.