Dive Brief:
- The U.S. will not impose list four of tariffs, on $300 billion worth of imports from China, "for at least the time being," President Donald Trump said during a press conference Saturday after the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Existing 25% tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods, along with China's retaliatory tariffs, will remain in place.
- Trump said the U.S. and China agreed to resume trade negotiations but did not specify a date or particular issues to be discussed.
- "China is going to be buying a tremendous amount of food and agricultural product, and they’re going to start that very soon, almost immediately. We’re going to give them lists of things that we’d like them to buy," Trump said, without providing details on how much or what types of products. "Our farmers are going to be a tremendous beneficiary."
Dive Insight:
The decision to indefinitely postpone tariffs on nearly all remaining imports from China comes as welcome news to many of the businesses and organizations that testified during seven days of hearings at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in recent weeks.
Those who testified in opposition to the tariffs noted a lack of alternative sourcing options and increased costs that would degrade margins, raise prices for consumers or both.
"Pulling back from the brink of further tariff escalation is a good sign for retailers and their customers," said David French, senior vice president for government relations at the National Retail Federation, in a press release emailed to Supply Chain Dive. He added he hoped continued negotiations between the two countries would lead to the lifting of existing tariffs, which amount to 25% duty rates on $250 billion of Chinese imports.
While export supply chains have been less impacted than import ones in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, due to the trade imbalance between the two nations, agricultural supply chains have suffered from high supply, lower demand and in turn lower prices, as Chinese importers turned to nations such as Brazil to avoid paying tariffs.
The agreement for China to buy more agricultural products from the U.S. could provide some relief, depending on how much the country will buy and what types of goods.
