China will massively cut import tariffs on goods in high domestic demand from next year, including medical equipment, anti-cancer drugs, raw materials for pharmaceuticals and high-tech equipment.
China’s Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday (Dec. 23) that from Jan. 1, 2021, the country will apply temporary import tariffs lower than the most favored nation tariff on 883 products. the total number of products enjoying such low tariff treatment in 2020 is 859. in 2019 this number is 706.
The Ministry of Finance said in a notice that the purpose of this round of tariff cuts is to “meet domestic demand, enhance China’s industrial and technological development, and promote the formation of a grand and smooth domestic economic cycle.
As relations between the U.S. and China have deteriorated across the board, the Trump administration has launched a full-scale counterattack against China’s unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft on multiple fronts, not only by raising tariffs on Chinese products to the U.S. across the board, but also by imposing various restrictions on key Chinese technology companies. Most Western countries have also followed in the footsteps of the United States in putting increasing pressure on the Chinese Communist Party.
In this context, Beijing has proposed a double-loop economic development strategy, which according to the Chinese official media is a new development pattern with “a large domestic cycle as the main body and a double-loop domestic and international circle to promote each other.
China plans to further reduce import tariffs on 176 information technology products starting July 1, the Ministry of Finance said in a notice. China will reduce temporary import tariffs on unwrought niobium in low-alloy steel used in the automotive and aerospace industries to 0 percent in 2021 from the previous 1 percent.
Zero tariffs will also be applied to raw materials for anti-cancer and rare disease drugs for civilian use, and food for children with special needs. Import tariffs on medical devices such as artificial heart valves and hearing aids, as well as raw materials for infant formula such as whey protein powder and lactoferrin, will also be further reduced.
China’s import tariff on frozen pork will be reduced to 8 percent from the current 12 percent.
The outbreak of African swine fever in China last August saw China’s pig stock plummet by nearly half and pork prices rise exponentially. China imported 229,000 tons of pork in November this year, jumping more than 150 percent from the same month last year. Pork imports in the first 11 months of this year reached 1.73 million tons, up 58 percent from the same period last year.
Analysts point out that China’s economy is now at its slowest growth rate in 30 years and could face even more pressure next year. To stimulate domestic demand and ease the difficulties caused by the epidemic, and to ease tensions between China and the West, opening up the Chinese market, lowering tariffs across the board and improving the trade environment are the only options facing Beijing.
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