China has begun exempting certain U.S.-made goods from its 125% tariff, according to multiple reports.
A Wall Street Journal report on Saturday detailed the move from Chinese officials to exempt U.S.-made semiconductors, chipmaking equipment, medical products, and aviation parts from the steep tariff it levied after President Donald Trump imposed a 145% tariff on the country. China made the exemptions after realizing it would not be able to import the goods from elsewhere.
When the trade spat with Trump escalated in early April following the U.S. president’s “Liberation Day” announcement, China began preparing a list of U.S. imports it was planning on exempting from the tariff. Besides crucial semiconductors and chipmaking equipment, that list includes industrial chemicals such as quartz and ethane, lithography machines, helicopters, and vaccines, according to people familiar with the matter.
China has not publicly announced the exemptions due to fears that they could reveal vulnerabilities in its economy, one person told the outlet.
Any trade talks that have taken place between the United States and China appear to be insubstantial.
While Trump revealed on Friday that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping “many times,” he declined to offer any details on the conversations.
The U.S. president later said he would give more details on the call “at the appropriate time” but wanted to “see if we can make a deal” first.
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“We have a lot of things going on, and I think, in the end, we’re going to end up with a lot of good deals, including tariff deals and trade deals,” Trump said. “I think the tariff plan is going very well.”
Chinese officials, meanwhile, have maintained that there have been no trade conversations between Beijing and Washington.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
