Key points
- Extension staves off surge in duties
- China “dealing quite nicely”: Trump
- Truce will hold until November 10
ISLAMABAD: The United States and China on Monday extended a tariff truce for another 90 days, staving off triple-digit duties on each other’s goods.
The truce on steeper levies was due to expire on Tuesday.
Donald Trump ordered a delay in the reimposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire, according to Reuters.
Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he had signed an executive order suspending the imposition of higher tariffs until 12:01 am EST (0501 GMT) on November 10, with all other elements of the truce to remain in place.
“I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
While the United States and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them, according to AFP.
As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30 per cent and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10 per cent. Those rates will now hold until November — or whenever a deal is cut before then.
Joint talks in Stockholm
Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce.
China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10-per cent duty, the report said.
It would also “take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration,” Xinhua reported.
