The United States and China reached a consensus on tariff adjustments and other trade priorities during a meeting Thursday morning in South Korea between the nations’ leaders and senior officials.
Under the agreement, the U.S. will reduce tariffs on certain Chinese imports linked to fentanyl trafficking from 20% to 10%, effective immediately, President Donald Trump announced Thursday aboard Air Force One. A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed the change and noted that the U.S. would also extend its suspension of reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports for an additional year.
Despite these adjustments, Chinese goods will continue to face an overall duty rate of 47%, President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said while en route to the U.S. from South Korea. “A variety of other tariffs still remain. Section 301 tariffs from the original, a variety of Section 232 tariffs,” Greer said. “Some of these tariffs are, as the president mentioned, around 40%. For some individual products it may go up to 100%, but as a general matter it’s about 45, 47%.” [From Supply Chain Dive].
Additionally, the U.S. will postpone implementation of the Bureau of Industry and Security’s 50% rule for one year, in exchange for Beijing delaying its rare earth export controls for the same period, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an October 30 interview. The BIS rule, issued and effective September 29, expands Entity List and Military End-User List restrictions to include affiliates majority-owned by entities already on those lists, extending certain prohibitions that apply to sanctioned parties.
Note: At the time of publication, there is no confirmed effective date as the Executive Order and Federal Register Notice have not yet been published.
PSA BDP will continue to share additional updates as they become available.
