China’s Commerce Ministry on Thursday called on the US to remove all punitive tariffs levied on Chinese products and push for bilateral economic and trade relations to get back to normal as soon as possible, after the US renewed tariff exclusions for 352 Chinese items.
US will reinstate exemptions on 352 out of 549 categories of its imports from China from the so-called “Section 301” tariffs after the previously granted exemptions expired, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced on Wednesday.
The exclusion will be effective retroactively from October 12, 2021 and extend through to December 31, 2022.
“This facilitates normal trade of the related products. China has always believed that the unilateral US tariff increase is not good for China, the US, and the world,” MOFCOM spokesperson Shu Jueting told a press conference on Thursday.
It’s hoped that the US will remove all punitive tariffs levied on Chinese products as soon as possible and push for bilateral economic and trade relations back to normalcy, Shu said.
The 352 products include industrial components such as pumps and electric motors, certain car parts and chemicals, backpacks, bicycles, vacuum cleaners and other consumer goods, according to the list published on the website of the USTR.
A key focus of the evaluation is “whether the particular product and/or a comparable product is available from sources in the US and/or in third countries”, according to the USTR.
The essence of China-US economic and trade relations is mutual benefit and win-win results, and there is no winner in a trade war, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press conference on Thursday in response to the USTR’s latest move.
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