More US products to be exempted from tariffs

A new list of US products will be exempted from China's first round of additional tariffs starting Dec 26, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said on Thursday.

It is the second set of US goods to be excluded from China's first round of tariff countermeasures against the US Section 301 measures, the commission said in a statement.

According to the commission, the exclusions will apply for a year. Duties that have already been imposed will not be refunded.

The remaining US products subject to China's first round of additional tariffs will not be excluded for the time being, the commission said.

The commission said it will continue the exemption process, and release the exclusion lists of US goods subject to the second round of additional tariffs in due course.

Last week, the world's two largest economies reached agreement on the text of their phase-one trade deal on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

The US will fulfill its commitment to eliminate certain extra tariffs that were in place or planned to be imposed on Chinese goods, Gao Feng, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday.

Gao said the economic and trade teams of the two sides are communicating closely about follow-up work, like the signing of the agreement.

The content of the deal will be released after it is officially signed, Gao said.