January 15, 2020 – The U.S.-China trade deal that President Donald Trump and China’s Vice Premier Liu He signed today provides an escape clause for either country to withdraw if a dispute cannot be resolved through high-level talks. That’s one of the many details tucked in the 86-page agreement. A quick summary of this agreement reveals that consumers and businesses will still pay costly tariffs as the US will maintain 25 percent duties on roughly $250 billion worth of Chinese goods used mainly by manufacturers to make finished products in the United States. It will also keep a 7.5 percent tariff on another $120 billion worth of mostly consumer goods like jackets, gloves, footwear and flat panel electronic displays — although those were rolled back from 15 percent. China will also keep retaliatory duties of 5 percent to 25 percent it slapped on roughly $110 billion worth of U.S. products it imports from the U.S. — a move that’s harming American exporters. But China will issue tariff “exclusions” for specific goods it has agreed to purchase as part of the deal. However, over the 2020-21 two-year period, China will buy at least $200 billion more in U.S. products and services than it did in 2017.
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