China announced on Monday that they will lower the tariffs that they had imposed on some consumer goods that range from computers to furniture and bicycles to ease the growing criticisms worldwide over its trade practices.
The United State and China had imposed more than $360 trillion amount of tariff on each other's trade during the highlight of their trade war. The European Union also urged China to open its market to foreign trade and to end its alleged unfair trade policies.
The State council's tariff commission announced that the country's tariff rate on imported goods that includes books, computers, food, furniture, and medicine will decrease to 13 percent effectively on Tuesday.
Xinhua, China's official news agency, reported that the goods are recently taxed at a 15 percent rate. The news agency also said that the border tax imposed on other imported goods like sporting goods, fishing supplies, textiles, electronic appliances, and bicycles will also be lowered to 20 percent from 25 percent.
This week, the top European leaders are scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a summit in Brussels. However, the leaders are uncertain whether they could win solid commitments on trade from China.
The United States Repetitive Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with a Chinese delegation headed by Vice Premier Liu He on April 3-5 in Washington to engage in talks over trade differences.
China announced that the negotiations between their trade delegates made new progress as they prepare to resume the negotiations next week to secure a trade agreement that would put an end to the tariff battle that has caused a global economic slowdown.
Xinhua said on a short statement on Sunday that the remaining issues would be handled through various effective means. According to the office of the United States trade representatives, the latest round of negotiations that ended on Friday included talks on intellectual property, forced technology transfer, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, services, purchases, and enforcement. They added that significant work remains, and the principals, deputy ministers, and delegation members will be in continuous contact to resolve outstanding issues.
According to White House adviser Larry Kudlow, Premier Liu went back to China after the talks on Friday but the two sides failed to resolve the remaining issues. He added that they are making headway in a lot of areas that includes enforcement that includes IP theft, which includes forced technology transfers, ownership, cyberspace, commodities and all the rest of it. He also added that those are of course in the middle of the negotiations that are ongoing, but they've come further and farther than ever before.
