attention! US will exempt 110 kinds of Chinese products from high tariffs
According to a report by the Ministry of Commerce on July 10, Reuters news, the US government said on Tuesday that it will exempt high-value tariffs on 110 Chinese products, from medical equipment to critical capacitors. This has led some US companies that have said that these tariffs have damaged their profits. Got relief.
On July 6, 2018, in the first round of the bilateral trade war, the United States imposed a 25% tariff on Chinese imports worth $34 billion. This trade war has disrupted the global supply chain and cost billions of dollars. The relatively small list of exemptions published today can be traced back to the date of implementation and will last for one year from Tuesday.
A US official said in an e-mailed statement that US Trade Representative Wright Heze and Finance Minister Nuchin had a telephone conversation with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and Commerce Minister Zhong Shan on Tuesday to continue negotiations on resolving unresolved trade issues. Negotiations resumed two months after the break, but the two-pronged tariff dispute between the two countries has been going on for a year. Washington wants Beijing to address the unfair and illegal trade practices that US officials believe have for decades.
Prior to the above exemption made by the Office of the US Trade Representative, 1,000 exemptions were approved in the past year. The United States has imposed tariffs on Chinese imports worth $250 billion and threatened to impose tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods.
At the end of June, US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks and agreed to suspend tariffs on China’s US consumer goods worth US$300 billion while the two sides resumed negotiations.
The US Trade Representative Office exempted one of the world's largest medical device manufacturers, Medtronic (MDT.N), for processing liver tumor devices, and was one of the company's 12 exemptions. Medtronic argues that parts with higher R&D investment are not produced in China, and they face the greatest risk of intellectual property theft.
Cyber security company Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW.N) also received a tariff exemption for an electronic component imported from China, a tantalum capacitor used to control the current in network firewall devices.
The company argues that alternatives are not produced in the United States, and that such capacitors are not part of the high-tech project in the "Made in China 2025" program. The Trump administration said the plan was unfairly subsidized, resulting in the theft of US intellectual property.
Varian Medical Systems Inc (VAR.N) also received a tariff exemption for some of the radiotherapy equipment, after the company argued that tariffs would only damage the company because there were no other good alternatives.
Varian said tariffs would put it at a disadvantage in competition with European competitors.
In May of this year, the US Trade Representative Office rejected 5,311 of the nearly 13,000 tariff exemption applications.
Some of the Chinese-made car circuits of Tesla (TSLA.O) are not exempt. The US Trade Representative Office said that these components are "strategic" for the "Made in China 2025" program.