President Trump delays further tariffs on Chinese goods

President Donald Trump has said that the US will delay further trade tariffs that were to be imposed on Chinese goods from 1st March.

Import duties were due to rise from 10% to 25%, affecting $200 billion worth of goods, but Trump cited progress made in trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, including an agreement on currency manipulation, as cause for the postponement.

The Trump administration originally launched an investigation into Chinese trade policies in 2017. Trump cited a trade deficit on the US side as a result of unfair trade practises in favour of Chinese businesses, as well as intellectual property theft from US companies.

The US applied a 25% tariff to $53 billion worth of goods from China, before ramping this up to an additional 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of goods when China responded in kind. China retaliated again by imposing duties on another $60 billion worth of goods. Trump then threatened tariffs on an additional $267 billion worth of goods, which would effectively encompass all Chinese imports.

The two governments had suspended tariffs and hostilities for a period of 90 days to allow for further negotiations.

Source: BBC News

Header image: Luke Michael