Beginning Jan. 1, China will lower tariffs on more than 850 foreign imports -- from pork to semiconductors -- in order to promote the "free flow" of trade, Beijing's finance ministry said Monday.
Approved by China's State Council, the plan will implement temporary tariffs on 859 products at lower rates, the State Council's Customs Tariff Commission said in a statement Monday. The lowered tariffs will affect pork, semiconductor equipment, memory chips and certain medicines, among several other products, it said.
Officials said the move is a bid to expand imports, promote trade and advance China's Belt and Road development strategy that aims to foster cooperation and connectivity among Asian nations.
"The above-mentioned adjustment measures are conducive to reducing import costs, promoting the orderly and free flow of international and domestic trade and promoting the establishment of a new system of a higher level, open economy," the commission said in a second statement. "It is also conducive to improving the level of opening up, continuously expanding new space for trade development and accelerating the construction of high-standard free trade zones."
Tariffs on nearly 200 information technology products and taxes among free trade partners and those who've signed on to its Belt and Road plan will be lowered, it said.
The announcement came nearly two weeks after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced the United States and China had agreed to a "phase one" preliminary trade agreement that has yet to be signed.
The agreement includes the removal of unspecified U.S tariffs on Chinese goods in phases and promises the Asian nation would purchase U.S. agricultural products.
U.S. President Donald Trump said a 25 percent tariff on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports would remain, while levies on $120 billion worth other Chinese products would be cut to 7.5 percent.
