{"id":194033,"date":"2018-12-15T00:26:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T05:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=194033"},"modified":"2018-12-15T00:26:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-15T05:26:27","slug":"china-suspends-tariff-hikes-on-us-cars-auto-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/15\/china-suspends-tariff-hikes-on-us-cars-auto-parts\/","title":{"rendered":"China suspends tariff hikes on US cars, auto parts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The suspension is China’s first step in response to President Donald Trump’s Dec. 1 agreement to suspend U.S. tariff hikes for a similar 90-day period while the two sides negotiate over American complaints about Beijing’s technology policy and trade surplus. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BEIJING \u2014 China announced a 90-day suspension on Friday of tariff hikes on U.S. cars, trucks and auto parts following its cease-fire in a trade battle with Washington that threatens global economic growth.<\/p>\n

The suspension is China’s first step in response to President Donald Trump’s Dec. 1 agreement to suspend U.S. tariff hikes for a similar 90-day period while the two sides negotiate over American complaints about Beijing’s technology policy and trade surplus.<\/p>\n

China has indicated it plans to move ahead with the talks despite strains over the arrest of a Chinese technology executive in Canada to face possible U.S. charges related to a violation of trade sanctions on Iran.<\/p>\n

Beijing will suspend a 25 per cent import charge on cars and trucks and a 5 per cent charge on auto parts, effective Jan. 1, the Finance Ministry announced.<\/p>\n

The announcement helped give substance to Trump’s agreement with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, after prolonged uncertainty caused jittery global financial markets to swing wildly.<\/p>\n

The Finance Ministry said the tariff suspension would apply to imports worth up to a total of $126 billion, but that would be nearly 10 times the $13 billion of vehicles the United States exported to China last year.<\/p>\n

China is the world’s biggest auto market but most U.S.-branded vehicles sold here are manufactured in Chinese factories. The automaker hit hardest by the Chinese tariff hike was Germany’s BMW AG, which ships SUVs made in a South Carolina factory to China.<\/p>\n

The penalties were imposed in response to Trump’s decision to slap 25 per cent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods and a 10 per cent charge on another $200 billion. The second tariff was due to rise Jan. 1 until Trump agreed to the postponement.<\/p>\n

The United States and other trading partners complain Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology in violation of its market-opening obligations. American officials also worry Chinese industry plans that call for state-led creation of global champions in robotics and other fields threaten U.S. industrial leadership.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry, Gao Feng, said Thursday the two sides were in \u201cclose contact\u201d but gave no timetable for possible face-to-face negotiations.<\/p>\n

Economists say 90 days probably is too little time to resolve conflicts that have bedeviled U.S.-Chinese relations for years. They say Beijing’s goal probably will be to show it is making progress so Trump extends his deadline.<\/p>\n

Beijing officials expressed confidence China could withstand U.S. pressure but the fight battered consumer confidence and threatened export industries that support millions of jobs.<\/p>\n

Friday’s announcement \u201cshows the Chinese government is willing to solve trade disputes through consultation based on equality,\u201d said Song Lifang, an economist at Renmin University in Beijing.<\/p>\n

The tariff cut lowers the charge for U.S.-made cars and trucks to 15 per cent, the same level as imports from other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the United States cuts or remove tariffs on Chinese goods, China will surely follow up with further relevant measures,\u201d Song said.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING \u2014 China announced a 90-day suspension on Friday of tariff hikes on U.S. cars, trucks and auto parts following …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":127696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","mauthors-joe-mcdonald","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}