USA and China Reach Interim Agreement in G20 Summit on “No Additional Tariffs” for 3 Months

In the G20 Summit held in Argentina on 12/02, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met each other and reached a preliminary consensus on ‘not imposing additional and new tariffs on certain products imported from each other’s country.” China also agreed to substantially increase purchase of U.S. products immediately in return in order to reduce the trade deficit.  

USA said the meeting was “highly successful.” However, it also mentioned that if within the next 90 days China and USA could not reach the satisfying agreement upon technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights, etc., USA will continue to impose retaliatory tariffs against China, which means if China could not achieve a significant progress in structural reform before March 01, 2019, the additional tariff rate will increase to 25%.  

USA initially determined to impose 10% additional tariff on certain products imported from China valued at US$ 200 billion in total since 01/01/2019. After the agreement in Argentina, the tariff rate will remain 10% and no other tariffs will be imposed on additional products temporarily.