Trump says China to roll back car tariffs
BEIJING: China will roll back tariffs on US-made cars, US President Donald Trump said, unveiling another potential breakthrough in a trade war truce that cheered stock markets on Monday.
Trump’s surprise announcement late Sunday came a day after he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to suspend any new tariffs and give negotiators 90 days to strike a deal.
The ceasefire follows months of tensions and tit-for-tat custom duties on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods that raised fears of an escalation harmful to the global economy.
Both sides gained from hitting the pause button, with Trump securing a Chinese pledge to import more US goods and Xi staving off the further pressure that higher tariffs would place on his country’s slowing economy.
Trump tweeted that China had agreed to “reduce and remove” tariffs of 40 % on cars, though Beijing has yet to confirm the move.
China’s foreign ministry declined to confirm Trump’s assertion on Monday, instead saying: “On December 1 President Xi and President Trump reached an important consensus on trade issues.” “They agreed to hold off on the imposition of new tariffs and came up with a series of constructive arrangements on how to address the existing differences and problems,” spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters.
Trump’s tweet did not explain which tariffs would be reduced or removed, or when China would act. William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said the car announcement, if confirmed, was “certainly movement in the right direction, and hopefully a sign of more things to come”.
Beijing had reduced auto import duties from 25 % to 15 %in July. But it later added a 25 % tariff on US-made cars as trade tensions soared, bringing them to 40 %. Many US automakers build their cars in China for the local market, but the tariff hikes have hit sales and profits for some companies including electric carmaker Tesla and US-made models from BMW and Ford.