The United States on Wednesday announced a three-month extension of exemptions from punitive tariffs on a range of Chinese goods seen as useful in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. This announcement extends until February 28 the already existing exemptions, which were supposed to expire on November 30.
It refers to the list of 81 products that have benefited from this exemption since the end of December 2020, according to the press release of the Office of the Trade Ambassador at the White House. Therefore, these products cannot be affected by trade restrictions and customs duties imposed by the US administration, particularly related to the transfer of US technology or intellectual property.
“In light of ongoing efforts to combat Covid, the Trade Ambassador felt a three-month extension was necessary.”, the statement said. In 2018, Donald Trump’s administration condemned the trade practice “unfair” Beijing had imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods that accounted for $350 billion in annual US imports, leading to a massive trade deficit.
Exceptions were granted and then expired. President Biden’s administration started the waiver process a year ago “targeted” for Chinese goods subject to punitive tariffs; Then he emphasized that they will be provided “case by case”, if there was no way to replace the product from China. The goal is to relieve American small and medium businesses that cannot find other sources of supply. Joe Biden’s administration already made a similar decision in March regarding the list of 352 other products that are exempted from additional customs duties until December 31.
Source: Le Figaro
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