President Trump and President Xi of China concluded a “highly successful meeting” on Saturday resulted in a moratorium on the Section 301 tariff increases that were slated for effect on January 1, 2019. The tariff increase from 10% to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese-origin goods, or tranche 3, is paused for 90 days. At this time, it is unclear if the 90 day period started on December 1 or will begin on January 1, 2019, when the tariff increase was originally scheduled to take place.

China has agreed to negotiations to help level the trade imbalance between our two countries by purchasing a substantial amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other products from the US. Additionally, discussions will take place around structural changes surrounding forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft, services, and agriculture.

If after 90 days, the parties fail to come to an agreement, the Section 301 tariffs of 10% will increase to 25%. Deringer will continue to monitor negotiations. If you have specific questions, please send an email to our Compliance Department. Additionally, the December 1st statement from the White House can be found online.