China slashes steel, textile tariffs as Trump ratchets up pressure
China's finance ministry announced Sunday that it will reduce import tariffs on a variety of products, including textiles and steel.
The tariff rate for textiles and metals including steel will fall to 8.4 percent from 11.5 percent, effective Nov. 1, Reuters reports. “Reducing tariffs is conducive to promoting the balanced development of foreign trade and promoting a higher level of opening up to the outside world,” the finance ministry said.
The ministry also announced that tariffs on wood and paper, minerals, and gemstones will fall to 5.4 percent from 6.6 percent, with average tariffs across 1,500 products reaching 7.8 percent, down from 10.5 percent.
The reductions come as President Trump deploys increasingly aggressive tariffs against Chinese goods, and just six days after Trump implemented a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods, following a similar action against $50 billion of goods in August.
The new tariff against Chinese imports was expected to rise from 10 percent to 25 percent at the end of the year.
In March, Trump began a global campaign to reform U.S. trade relations, introducing a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, only briefly exempting Mexico, Canada, and the European Union.
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