China has drawn up a list of American products that will be exempt from the 125% tariffs and has notified companies about this move, at a time when Beijing aims to ease the impact of its trade war with Washington.
China already grants tariff exemptions for certain special products such as medicines, microchips, and aircraft engines, and has asked companies to indicate which crucial products they need to be exempt from tariffs. However, the existence of a so-called „white list” of American products exempt from tariffs is a novelty.
This approach allows Beijing, which publicly stated that it will fight until the US removes the 145% tariffs imposed on Chinese products, to maintain its official stance in public, while taking backstage measures to make concessions.
It is currently unclear how many and which products have been included on the list, which has not been publicly disclosed by the authorities, sources who wished to remain anonymous told Reuters. Instead, Chinese companies have been privately contacted by authorities and informed that there is a list of products that will be exempt from tariffs, said one source working at a pharmaceutical company that sells American medicines in China.
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"There are still many American technologies that we need," said the source, adding that the company where they work has previously lobbied for tariff exemptions because it relies on American technologies for some of its products.
Another source reported that some companies have been asked to privately contact authorities to find out if the products they import from the US qualify for tariff exemptions.
Additionally, sources cited by Reuters revealed that Chinese authorities are questioning companies to assess the impact of the trade war.
At a recent meeting, authorities in eastern China asked a lobbying group representing foreign companies to "report all critical situations caused by tariff tensions," said a person close to this matter who did not want to disclose the name of the city where the authorities held this meeting, as it was not a public event.