The move to slash tariffs is an effort to alleviate economic and trade frictions and expand economic and trade cooperation with the US. Tariffs will be cut on certain US imports from ten per cent to five per cent. Duties on other items will be brought down from five per cent to 2.5 per cent.

The US has also agreed to curb tariffs on some China-originating goods, eliminating a slated December set and halving the tariff rate on list 4A goods to 7.5 per cent. For the apparel and textiles sector, the relief is nominal, as 92 per cent of the apparel originally targeted in the trade war is still facing tariffs. Tranche 3 tariffs, for one, are still in effect, plaguing thread, yarn, textiles and handbags with punitive duties.

China is battling an escalating health crisis. The coronavirus outbreak has significant portions of the country under lockdown, goods piling up at ports, and workers—including truckers who would handle goods movement in the country—warned off from returning to work in the hopes of minimizing further spread of the virus.

Since tariffs automatically increase the cost of imported goods, it would be inherently contradictory public policy to want more Chinese purchasers to buy American products and yet at the same time make them more expensive than necessary because of such tariffs.