With the joint efforts of both China and the US, the bilateral trade frictions started to show signs of slowing down as we sailed into 2020. In January 2020, China and the US signed the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement. The US determined to reduce the additional tariff rates on certain China products by half at the same time. In response to the modification of the US Section 301 tariffs, China announced to halve the additional tariff rates on certain US products in February 2020.
The signing of Phase One Agreement and the modification of retaliatory tariffs have effectively alleviated the tensions of the ongoing Sino-US trade friction. Under current circumstances, in order to satisfy the needs of domestic consumers and support companies in China to import goods from the US out of commercial considerations, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council (the "Tariff Commission") issued the Notice Regarding the Initiatives on Tariff Exclusion for US Imports under Market-Oriented Principle (the "Notice [2020] No.2" ) on February 18 2020, to launch a tariff exclusion process for its retaliatory tariffs on certain US products that are purchased from the US under market-oriented principle. The Tariff Commission will start to process applications from March 2 2020.
More details and our observations can be found in the link below: