According to the official website of China’s Ministry of Commerce, a spokesperson responded to a reporter’s question regarding the U.S. exemption of certain products from the “reciprocal tariffs.”
The US has issued a memorandum exempting certain products — including computers, smartphones, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and integrated circuits — from the “reciprocal tariffs” and China is currently assessing the impact of these measures, said the Ministry of Commerce, in response to a question regarding to the US policy adjustment.
“We have noted that this is the second adjustment to US tariff policy following its April 10 decision to suspend the imposition of high “reciprocal tariffs” on some trade partners and this should be regarded as a small step in correcting the US’s unilateral approach to “reciprocal tariffs.” it said.
Issuing so-called “reciprocal tariffs” not only violates basic economic and market principles but also disregards the complementary cooperation and supply-demand relationships between nations, it said.
Since the policy was introduced on April 2, it has failed to solve any of the U.S.’s own issues and on the contrary, it has seriously disrupted the international trade order, interfered with normal business operations, and negatively impacted consumers’ daily lives — hurting others without benefiting itself, the ministry said.
China’s position on China-U.S. economic and trade relations remains consistent: there are no winners in trade wars, and protectionism leads nowhere. As the Chinese saying goes, “Whoever tied the bell must untie it,” it noted.
“We urge the US to heed the rational voices from both the international community and its own domestic stakeholders, take a bigger step in correcting its errors, completely revoke the mistaken ‘reciprocal tariffs’ and return to the right path of resolving differences through mutual respect and equal dialogue, the ministry said.
The comments came after, the US Customs and Border Protection Bureau, on April 11 local time, issued a notice in accordance with the U.S. President’s memorandum dated April 11, which exempted a group of products — including computers, smartphones, chip manufacturing equipment, displays, and semiconductors — from the tariffs. In addition, products recently subjected to new tariffs in the past few days can also be declared for exemption.
This means that smart technology devices like smartphones and computers, as well as upstream components imported from China, will not be subject to the total 145% “reciprocal tariff.”
These exemption rules apply to products registered or released from warehouses for consumption purposes on or after April 5.
After launching the global “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2, Trump updated the tariff rates on Chinese products on April 8 and 9. The current tariff rate for Chinese imports has been raised to 145%.