PL explains
The United States and China took the first steps for a descaled by the tariffs and signed a valuable pact. What are the commitments?
Containers in the port of Nanjing, China, who reached a temporary agreement with the US on tariffs. (Free Press Photo: AFP)
United States and China They announced this Monday A decala in its commercial war with a suspension in most tariffs that had been imposed on each other.
The commercial war between Beijing and Washington broke out when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, He adopted at the beginning of April a barrage of tariffs that hit China. The Asian giant responded with retaliation measures.
Customs rates imposed by the United States to China They amounted to 145% and accumulated levies for certain products reached 245%. In response, China imposed 125% surcharges on US products.
“Yesterday we achieved a total reset with China After productive conversations in Geneva “, Trump declared on Monday to journalists at the White House.
The news immediately reassured markets. Wall Street opened with strong increases: Dow Jones won 2.66%, The Nasdaq 4.16% and the S&P 500 2.97%, in the wake of the Asian and European markets.
But although this truce is an “important advance”there is still work “to do to reach a formal agreement” And the situation “could deteriorate,” said Daniela Sabin Hathorn, capitalist analyst.
What are the main agreements?
- Specifically, Chinese products imported in the United States will pay a 30% tariff because Washington has not removed a 20% surcharge introduced before April.
- American products entering China will pay 10% tariffs.
- Washington and Beijing will also “work constructively” about fentanil, a powerful synthetic opioid that wreaks havoc in the United States and whose chemical precursors are manufactured in part in China.
- The agreement for the reduction of tariffs will last 90 days, starting on May 14.
- In addition, “a mechanism to continue conversations about economic and commercial relations” is established, according to the British chain BBC
- Future conversations can be held in China or the United States, according to the same source.
Tariff chronology between the US and China
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, he imposed 10% of additional tariffs, which were then increased to 20%, justifying these levies to the role that the Chinese played in the production of fentanyl.
- On April 2, the US president announced tariffs that affect much of the world, with the aim of reducing the commercial deficit of the United States. For China, these tariffs reached 34%, adding to those related to fentanyl.
- Beijing responded then, imposing additional 34% on all American products. In response, the US president increased tariffs to 104%.
- China then raised its own to 84%, and Trump counterattacked with 125% taxes, to which 20% related to the fentanyl crisis is added, which adds a total of 145% of US tariffs on Chinese products announced on April 10.
