US President Donald Trump announced that he will delay a planned tariff hike on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods from October 1 to 15 as a gesture of goodwill to Beijing, according to reports on Thursday.
Taking to Twitter, Trump said, “At the request of the Vice Premier of China, Liu He, and due to the fact that the People’s Republic of China will be celebrating their 70th anniversary on October 1, we have agreed, as a gesture of goodwill, to move the increased Tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods (25 per cent to 30 per cent), from October 1 to October 15”.
At the request of the Vice Premier of China, Liu He, and due to the fact that the People’s Republic of China will be celebrating their 70th Anniversary….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2019
The development comes after China’s Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council postponed the planned 25 per cent tariffs on 16 American products, which were to come into effect on Tuesday, by a year.
These tariffs will now take effect on September 16, 2020, and affects items including fishmeal, some lubricants and raw materials used in cancer drugs.
The two announcements come as the two sides prepare to hold fresh talks aimed at resolving their long-running trade dispute, the BBC reported.
Earlier in the month, the US had imposed fresh tariffs on $112 billion worth of Chinese imported goods, marking a sharp escalation of the bruising trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Tensions further escalated between the two largest economies after the US said last month that it would increase the tariff rates on all Chinese goods, which included raising a 25 per cent tax on $250 billion of Chinese imports to 30 per cent.
The dispute between the world’s two biggest economies in July 2018 boiled over into tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of each other’s goods and threatens to engulf all trade between the countries, putting global growth at risk.
Donald Trump launched the trade war as part of his “America First” bid to lower a wide trade deficit with China, but the tariffs imposed thus far have barely made a dent in that gap.