April 6, 2018
The last week has been a busy one, trying to keep up with the salvos back and forth between the U.S. and China regarding tariff treatment. Below is a summary of the recent activities.
- The recent trade one-upmanship dates back to U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum that took effect March 23 – a number of countries were finally exempted but not China.
- April 2, China responded by levying 15%-to-25% tariffs on $3 billion worth of American goods, including scrap aluminum, frozen pork, dried fruits, nuts and wine. [list attached]
- April 3, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published a proposed list of products imported from China that could be subject to higher duties in a separate argument over technology policy. The list is set out in the announcement, which can be found here (The list covers approximately 1,300 tariff lines is in the Annex, which starts on page 14).
- On April 4, China quickly retaliated by listing $50 billion of products that it could hit with its own 25 percent tariffs. The Chinese list Wednesday included soybeans, the biggest U.S. export to China, and aircraft up to 45 tons in weight. Also on the list were American beef, whisky, passenger vehicles and industrial chemicals. [list attached]
- April 5, The White House announced after the markets closed Thursday, that Trump had instructed the Office of the United States Trade Representative to consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate and, if so, to identify which products they should apply to. (A White House official later said the $100-billion figure Trump used in the statement referred to the value of the imports that would be covered by the additional tariffs, not the total amount of tax that would be charged on the products.) It Should Be Noted That The U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer quickly followed up Trump’s Thursday evening declaration with a statement of his own stressing that none of the tariffs would take immediate effect. He said that any additional tariffs first would be subject to a 60-day public comment period, as would the penalties announced earlier in the week. No tariffs will go into effect until the respective process is complete, Lighthizer said.
- What’s next remains to be seen: China’s commerce ministry advises that “China has very detailed countermeasures” and will “fight at any cost” to defend its economic interests, drawing the world’s two largest economies into a deeper confrontation.
April 2nd Chinese tariff list
The 25% tariff will apply primarily to pork products but also includes scrap aluminum.
- Aluminum scrap
- Fresh or cold boned pig forelegs, hindquarters, and their meat
- Other fresh or cold pork
- Other frozen whole head and half pork
- Frozen bone forelegs, pigs’ legs, and their meat
- Other frozen pork
- Frozen pork liver
- Other frozen pork chops
The 15% tariff applies primarily to fruit and nut products, as well as steel piping.
- Dried coconut
- Coconut without inner shell
- Other coconut
- Unhulled Brazilian nuts
- Shelled Brazilian nuts
- Unshelled cashews
- Shelled cashew
- Unshelled almonds
- Shelled almonds
- Hazelnuts
- Unshelled hazelnuts
- Unshelled walnuts
- Walnut kernels
- Unhealed chestnut
- Other shelled chestnuts
- Unhulled pistachio fruit
- Hulled pistachi nut
- Other unhealed macadamia nuts
- Roasted macadamia nuts
- Betel nut fruit
- Pine nuts
- Other fresh or dried nuts
- Fresh or dried plantain
- Other fresh or dried bananas, except for plantains
- Fresh or dried dates
- Fresh or dried figs
- Fresh or dried pineapple
- Fresh or dried avocados
- Fresh or dried guava
- Fresh or dried mango
- Fresh or dried mangosteen
- Fresh or dried orange
- Other citrus (including mandarin & satsuma oranges)
- Clementine orange
- Virgin orange and similar hybrid citrus
- Grapefruit, including pomelo
- Lemons and limes
- Unlisted citrus fruit
- Fresh grapes
- Raisins
- Fresh watermelon
- Fresh cantaloupe
- Papaya
- Fresh apples
- Fresh pears
- Fresh sour cherries
- Other fresh cherries
- Peaches, including nectarines
- Fresh plum and promos Fresh strawberries
- Fresh raspberry, blackberry, mulberry & Logan berry
- Fresh cranberry and cowberry
- Kiwi
- Fresh durian
- Persimmon
- Fresh lychee
- Fresh longan
- Rumbatan
- Fresh sweet lychee
- Fresh carambola
- Fresh lotus fog
- Fresh pitaya
- Fruits not listed
- Frozen strawberries
- Frozen raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, rose hips, currant and gooseberries
- Frozen fruits and nuts, not listed
- Other temporarily preserved fruits and nut
- Fried apricots
- Mei Qiang and Li Gan
- Dried apples
- Dried longan and meat
- Dried persimmons
- Red dates
- Dried litchi
- Dried fruits not listed
- Assorted nuts or dried fruits
- Sparkling wine
- Other fresh brewed wines packing containers of 2-liters or less brewed with alcohol
- Wines brewed with other fresh grapes packed in 2-liter containers, but not more than 10 liters
- Wines made from other fresh grapes packed in containers of 10 liters or more
- Other items from grape juice wine
- Modified Ethanol and other alcohols of any concentration
- American ginseng
- Other fresh ginseng
- Unlisted ginseng
- Stainless steel pipes for oil / gas piping / drilling (32 sizes)
April 2nd Chinese tariff list
- Yellow soybean
- Black soybean
- Corn
- Cornflour
- Uncombed cotton
- Cotton linters
- Sorghum
- Brewing or distilling dregs and waste
- Other durum wheat
- Other wheat and mixed wheat
- Whole and half head fresh and cold beef
- Fresh and cold beef with bones
- Fresh and cold boneless beef
- Frozen beef with bones
- Frozen boneless beef
- Frozen boneless meat
- Other frozen beef chops
- Dried cranberries
- Frozen orange juice
- Non-frozen orange juice
- Whiskies
- Unstemmed flue-cured tobacco
- Other unstemmed tobacco
- Flue-cured tobacco partially or totally removed
- Partially or totally deterred tobacco stems
- Tobacco waste
- Tobacco cigars
- Tobacco cigarettes
- Cigars and cigarettes, tobacco substitutes
- Hookah tobacco
- Other tobacco for smoking
- Reconstituted tobacco
- Other tobacco and tobacco substitute products
- SUVs with discharge capacity of 2.5L to 3L
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 2500ml, but not exceeding 3000ml for SUVs (4 wheel drive)
- Vehicles with discharge capacity of 1.5L to 2L
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 1000ml, but not exceeding 1500ml for SUVs (4 wheel drive)
- Passenger cars with discharge capacity 1.5L to 2L, 9 seats or less
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source.
- Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 1000ml, but not exceeding 1500ml for 9 passenger cars and below
- Passenger cars with discharge capacity of 3L to 4L, 9 seats or less
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 3000ml, but not exceeding 4000ml for 9 passenger cars and below
- Off-road vehicles with discharge capacity of 2L to 2.5L
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 2000ml, but not exceeding 2500ml for off-road vehicles
- Passenger cars with discharge capacity of 2L to 2.5L, 9 seats or less
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 2000ml, but not exceeding 2500ml for 9 passenger cars and below
- Off-road vehicles with discharge capacity of 3L to 4L
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 3000ml, but not exceeding 4000ml for off-road vehicles
- Diesel-powered off-road vehicles with discharge capacity of 2.5L to 3L
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 2500ml, but not exceeding 3000ml for diesel-powered off-road vehicles
- Passenger cars with discharge capacity of 2.5L to 3L, 9 seats or less
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement exceeding 2500ml, but not exceeding 3000ml for 9 passenger cars and below
- Off-road vehicles with discharge capacity of less than 4L
- Other vehicles equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source. Cylinder capacity displacement not exceeding 4000ml for off-road vehicles
- Other vehicles which are equipped with an ignited reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor and can be charged by plugging in an external power source
- Other vehicles that are equipped with a compression ignition type internal combustion engine (diesel or semi-diesel) and a drive motor, other than vehicles that can be charged by plugging in an external power source
- Other vehicles which are equipped with an ignition reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor and can be charged by plugging in an external power source
- Other vehicles that are equipped with a compression-ignition reciprocating piston internal combustion engine and a drive motor that can be charged by plugging in an external power source
- Other vehicles that only drive the motor
- Other vehicles
- Other gasoline trucks of less than 5 tons
- Transmissions and parts for motor vehicles not classified
- Liquefied Propane
- Primary Shaped Polycarbonate
- Supported catalysts with noble metals and their compounds as actives
- Diagnostic or experimental reagents attached to backings, except for goods of tariff lines 32.02, 32.06
- Chemical products and preparations for the chemical industry and related industries, not elsewhere specified
- Products containing PFOS and its salts, perfluorooctanyl sulfonamide or perfluorooctane sulfonyl chloride in note 3 of this chapter
- Items listed in note 3 of this chapter containing four, five, six, seven or octabromodiphenyl ethers
- Contains 1,2,3,4,5,6-HCH (6,6,6) (ISO), including lindane (ISO, INN)
- Primarily made of dimethyl (5-ethyl-2-methyl-2oxo-1,3,2-dioxaphosphorin-5-yl)methylphosphonate and double [(5-b Mixtures and products of 2-methyl-2-oxo-1,3,2-dioxaphosphorin-5-yl)methyl] methylphosphonate (FRC-1)
- 38248600a articles listed in note 3 to this chapter containing PeCB (ISO) or Hexachlorobenzene (ISO)
- Containing aldrin (ISO), toxaphene (ISO), chlordane (ISO), chlordecone (ISO), DDT (ISO) [Diptrix (INN), 1,1,1-trichloro-2 ,2-Bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane], Dieldrin (ISO, INN), Endosulfan (ISO), Endrin (ISO), Heptachlor (ISO) or Mirex (ISO). The goods listed in note 3 of this chapter
- Other carrier catalysts
- Other polyesters
- Reaction initiators, accelerators not elsewhere specified
- Polyethylene with a primary shape specific gravity of less than 0.94
- Acrylonitrile
- Lubricants (without petroleum or oil extracted from bituminous minerals)
- Diagnostic or experimental formulation reagents, whether or not attached to backings, other than those of heading 32.02, 32.06
- Lubricant additives for oils not containing petroleum or extracted from bituminous minerals
- Primary Shaped Epoxy Resin
- Polyethylene Terephthalate Plate Film Foil Strips
- Other self-adhesive plastic plates, sheets, films and other materials
- Other plastic non-foam plastic sheets
- Other plastic products
- Other primary vinyl polymers
- Other ethylene-α-olefin copolymers, specific gravity less than 0.94
- Other primary shapes of acrylic polymers
- Other primary shapes of pure polyvinyl chloride
- Polysiloxane in primary shape
- Other primary polysulphides, polysulfones and other tariff numbers as set forth in note 3 to chapter 39 are not listed.
- Plastic plates, sheets, films, foils and strips, not elsewhere specified
- 1,2-Dichloroethane (ISO)
- Halogenated butyl rubber sheets, strips
- Other heterocyclic compounds
- Adhesives based on other rubber or plastics
- Polyamide-6,6 slices
- Other primary-shaped polyethers
- Primary Shaped, Unplasticized Cellulose Acetate
- Aromatic polyamides and their copolymers
- Semi-aromatic polyamides and their copolymers
- Other polyamides of primary shape
- Other vinyl polymer plates, sheets, strips
- Non-ionic organic surfactants
- Lubricants (containing oil or oil extracted from bituminous minerals and less than 70% by weight)
- Aircraft and other aircraft with an empty weight of more than 15,000kg but not exceeding 45,000k
- List translated by CNBC and Google translate.
