On February 6, 2020, the Ministry of Finance of China (the "MOF") announced tariff cuts for certain U.S.-origin goods. The additional tariff was reduced from 10% to 5% for goods within 270 tariff-items listed in Part 1 and 646 tariff-items listed in Part 2 of Annex 1 to the Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Imposing Tariffs on Certain U.S.-Origin Goods (Third Batch) (Customs Tax Commission Announcement [2019] No. 4) (the "2019 Announcement"). In addition, the additional was reduced from 5% to 2.5% for 64 tariff-items listed in Part 3 and 737 tariff-items listed in Part 4 of Annex 1 to the 2019 Announcement. Tariff reductions are effective as of 13:01 February 14, 2020.
An official of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council (the "CTC") noted that the tariff reductions are reciprocal measures to similar tariff cuts announced by the U.S. government on January 16, 2020, reducing the tariffs levied on $120 billion worth of Chinese goods since last September to from 15% to 7.5%, effective on February 14, 2020. According to the CTC official, the next adjustment measures would depend on the development of the U.S.-China economic and trade situation.
