BEIJING —  China extended an olive twig, rather than a branch, to the United States in their trade war Wednesday, announcing it would exempt 16 American-made products from tariffs as a sign of goodwill ahead of talks scheduled for next month.

But the gesture, which Beijing said was designed to ease the dispute’s impact on American companies, does not offer relief from tariffs on the big-ticket agricultural products that are causing the most hurt in the United States.

“China wants to claim the moral high ground before the October talks and to send a message of goodwill,” said Yao Xinchao, professor of international trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. “It’s all about molding public opinion” to portray the U.S. as the aggressor, Yao added.

China’s Ministry of Finance said that 16 types of U.S. products would be exempt from retaliatory tariffs for a year from next Tuesday. The list included varieties of animal feed such as alfalfa and fish meal, cancer drugs gefitinib and capecitabine, base oil for lubricants and lubricating grease, and some farm chemicals.

Further exemptions will be announced in the coming weeks, the ministry said, and tariffs that have already been imposed will be refunded.

But the list offers no respite for American farmers hit by Chinese tariffs on corn, soybeans, and pork.

“Pork and soybeans are two important bargaining chips that China won’t play easily,” said Yao.

[Markets soar as China, U.S. resume trade talks in Washington in October]

China and the United States have been involved in a tit-for-tat tariff battle, imposing rounds of duties on each other’s products for more than a year.

President Trump has hoped that the tariffs would convince China to cave into his demands to re-balance the trading relationship between the world’s two largest economies. But Beijing has retaliated as much as it can — China exports far more to the U.S. than it imports — and has insisted any deal must be “mutually beneficial.”

In the latest episode, the Trump administration declared it would add a 15 percent tax to consumer products from China, including clothing, footwear, pens, pencils, diapers, Bluetooth earbuds, televisions, golf clubs, and fishing line. Those tariffs took effect Sept. 1.

At one point, Trump even ordered American companies to prepare to leave China.

Beijing responded by slapping tariffs on $75 billion of American goods, which in turn led Trump to increase tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese products from the previously announced 10 percent to 15 percent.

Wednesday’s measures marked the first time in the dispute that tariffs have been removed, not added.

[New tariffs on shoes, televisions and other Chinese-made products take effect Sunday ]

The Commerce Ministry said last week that Liu He, the vice-premier who has been leading the trade negotiations from the Chinese side, would travel to Washington in early October for a new round of talks aimed at breaking the impasse.

This will be the 13th round of talks between Liu and his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer.

 A U.S. Chamber of Commerce delegation led by executive vice president Myron Brilliant has been in Beijing this week holding talks with senior Chinese leaders, including Premier Li Keqiang. The tariff dispute has dragged down economic growth and business confidence, Brilliant said after meeting with Li.

“The uncertainty produced by U.S.-China trade tensions is exerting significant downward pressure on both economies,” Brilliant said in a statement. “The time is now to strike a deal that addresses the U.S.’s legitimate concerns about market access, forced technology transfer, subsidies, and digital trade, while concurrently removing punitive and retaliatory tariffs.”

Li, for his part, said the two sides should seek common ground based on the principle of equality and mutual respect, according to a report from China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-to-remove-tariffs-on-some-us-products-but-not-pork-or-soybeans/2019/09/11/79d45fc0-d459-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html?noredirect=on

The post China to remove tariffs on some U.S. products, but not pork or soybeans first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Billions of dollars and many jobs are at risk in the richest and most populous US state – a world-class economy and bastion of opposition to US President Donald Trump.

Offshore yuan falls 0.55pc after Trump ups ante in trade war

“If there’s one region in the United States that will be most impacted by the trade war, it’s going to be LA,” said Stephen Cheung, former director of international trade at the Port of Los Angeles and now chairman of an NGO called World Trade Center Los Angeles.

Last year in Los Angeles-area ports, two-way trade with China totalled more than US$170 billion, Cheung said, adding: “China is our number one trading partner.”

The world’s two largest economies have squared off in a tit-for-tat trade war that threatens to disrupt international commerce.

“Our fear is that the cycle will keep growing to the point where it’s going to depress the economy,” said Cheung.

California boasts the world’s fifth largest economy, with annual output of US$2.7 billion, more than that of Britain.

The state of 40 million people is home to the powerful tech companies of Silicon Valley and the Hollywood movie and TV industry, and exports electric cars, engines, auto parts and aluminium, besides being the nation’s bread basket.

How China plans to push back against Trump in ‘economic cold war’

Pistachios, almonds, oranges, walnuts, plums, lemons and strawberries are among the farm products targeted in Chinese tariffs imposed in retaliation for US levies ordered by Trump.

“Although we don’t know the exact ramifications these tariffs will have on our crops, we do understand the loss of the Chinese market will result in other foreign suppliers moving into the marketplace, causing long-term lost sales opportunities for our farmers,” said Sara Neagu-Reed of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

China was the third largest market in 2016 for California farm goods, after Canada and the European Union, with imports to the tune of US$2 billion.

“We as growers are very concerned,” said Holly King, head of the Almond Board of California. The sector exported US$518 million worth of almonds in 2016. Now, the nut has been hit with a 50 per cent tariff in China.

For pistachios – US$530 million in exports that year – the levy is 45 per cent.

Casey Creamer, executive vice-president of the California Citrus Mutual, which represents 2,500 growers, said the organisation’s focus for now is on supporting the US government in the face of Chinese trade practices which “have been very bad for our industry.”

American families set to pay as US targets Chinese consumer goods

Trump, who says he wants to reduce the US trade deficit with China, has accused other countries of taking advantage of the US when it comes to bilateral trade.

Many producers agree that China has engaged in unfair practices but “instead of using trade tariffs as a tactic” the better approach is to negotiate toward an accord that benefits both sides, said Cheung.

Wine was slapped with a 35 per cent tariff in China, which hurts Michael Honig, who owns a winery in Napa Valley north of San Francisco.

“We started exporting to China over 10 years ago and built up a good market,” he told AFP. “And what we’ve seen now is everything just stopped.”

His Asian buyer has put orders on hold to see what happens before resuming purchases. “It’s kind of frustrating,” Honig said.

Trump tariff list targets hi-tech minerals that US needs

Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, which along with that of Los Angeles moved 7.5 million containers last year, said that for now he is not aware of any stranded shipments but he will have a better idea of the fallout from the tariffs in six months.

The NGO California Budget & Policy Center has warned that there are more than 285,000 jobs in California at stake in industries affected by the trade war.

Cheung said prices at the consumer level should start going up in a matter of weeks, making importers more wary of buying products.

What’s more, the war could scare away Chinese investment in California.

“The economy has already been impacted,” Cheung said, and even if the war subsides “it’s going to take a while to get back to operating normally”.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154880/california-stands-suffer-if-us-china-trade-war-worsens

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