On December 13, President Trump announced that the Section 301 tariffs scheduled to go into effect on December 15 were suspended as a result of a new “Phase One” trade deal with China. The United States Trade Representative’s office released an accompanying Fact Sheet, stating that the new agreement would resolve a variety of longstanding trade issues between the two countries and cover topics such as intellectual property, technology transfer, agriculture, financial services, expanding trade, and dispute resolution. In addition, China has agreed to “make substantial additional purchases of U.S. goods and services.”
An official text of the new trade agreement has not yet been released. In regards to current duties in place against China, the existing 25% tariffs on items in List 1, List 2, and List 3 will remain in place, and the 15% duty on $120 billion goods (items in Annex A of List 4) will be reduced to 7.5% in the near future, although it is currently unclear as to the exact date this change will take effect.
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