Economy News

US and China cut tariffs on $30bn of each other's goods, from toasters to dolphins

The US and China released reciprocal lists on Monday 28 September of goods worth about $30bn each on which they plan to cut tariffs, The Guardian reports, days after Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in Washington. The US list covers 77 categories of Chinese products, including bed linen, garden umbrellas, toasters and billiard balls. China's list has 1,619 types of US products, from butter, lobster and foie gras to coal, MRI systems and breeding animals such as horses, whales and dolphins.

US trade representative Jamieson Greer said the list represented “improved market access for about 30% of US exports to China”. China's commerce ministry said more than 90% of the products would move to “most favoured nation” tariff levels. Semiconductors, batteries and electric vehicles are not covered, no timeline has been set, and US soya beans, Reuters noted, still face an extra 10% tariff.

“It is a positive step, but not a major breakthrough.” — Zhu Tian, CEIBS, via The Guardian

How each outlet framed it

• AP (via Boston Globe) — the lists as a product of the Trump-Xi meeting.
• The Guardian — “managed stabilisation, not a trade reset”, in the words of The Asia Group's Han Lin, with the summit itself yielding only a two-month extension of the trade truce agreed in Busan.
• Fox — the combined figure: $60bn in tariff cuts across both sides.

What we don't know yet: when the cuts take effect. The deal was brokered through the US-China Board of Trade, set up during Trump's visit to Beijing in May.