China exempts a number of American goods from duties

After the United States and China announced the conclusion of the first phase of trade deal, Beijing unveiled a new list of exempted from duties goods from the United States. The exemption from tariffs will enter into force on December 26 and will last a year, until December 26, 2020.

Tariffs will be canceled for six categories of products, including white oil, high density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene. The total value of imported goods is not specified.

Last Friday, Washington and Beijing announced the approval of the text of the first part of the trade agreement, under which the parties agreed not to introduce new duties on each other. On Sunday, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer said that the signing of the first phase of the transaction will take place in early January 2020.

He also noted that this agreement will lead to an almost twofold increase in US exports to China in the next two years, since it implies an increase in China's purchases of US agricultural, industrial and energy products.