Following China-US high-level meeting on economic and trade affairs in Geneva over the weekend that achieved substantial progress by significantly reducing bilateral tariff levels, the two countries have moved to make the relevant tariff adjustments on Wednesday. China-US trade flows, once hampered by steep tariffs, are starting normalizing, according to ports and exporters.
The US government has removed the additional 91 percent tariffs on Chinese goods imposed under Executive Orders No. 14259 (April 8, 2025) and No. 14266 (April 9, 2025), effective from 00:01 am Eastern Time on May 14, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce confirmed on Wednesday.
In light of the US move to remove, suspend or adjust relevant additional tariffs on Chinese goods based on the consensus reached in the recent China-US high-level meeting on economic and trade affairs, China will make corresponding adjustments to its countermeasures, including both tariff and non-tariff measures on US goods, the ministry said.
China is scheduled to adjust tariffs on imported US products from 12:01 pm Wednesday, according to an announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.
China will modify accordingly the application of the additional ad valorem rate of duty on articles of the US set forth in the Announcement of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council No. 4 of 2025, by suspending 24 percentage points of that rate for an initial period of 90 days, while retaining the remaining additional ad valorem rate of 10 percent on those articles, Xinhua News Agency reported early Wednesday.
The country will also remove the modified additional ad valorem rates of duty on those articles imposed by the No. 5 and No. 6 announcements issued by the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on April 9 and 11, respectively.
Also on Wednesday, China's Commerce Ministry announced that it has temporarily suspended Unreliable Entity List measures against 17 US entities starting on Wednesday, following the joint statement issued after the China-US economic and trade talks in Geneva.
To implement the consensus reached at the China-US high-level economic and trade talks, China will suspend the measures announced on April 4 (Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism [2025] No. 7) for 90 days and will also suspend the measures announced on April 9 (Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism [2025] No. 8), the spokesperson said.
A Chinese expert said the US market has a strong rigid demand for many Chinese products, and once tariff barriers are removed, previously suppressed normal bilateral trade will quickly rebound. However, he also cautioned uncertainties looming over future negotiations.
Trade restoration
In recent days, major clients on US-bound routes have resumed shipments and increased bookings, Lin Risheng, a duty manager from the operations services department at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
"We have received multiple inquiries from shipping companies about urgently adjusting berthing schedules, so we are rerouting ships from other lines to handle the expected surge in shipments," Lin said. "As the most US route-intensive port in South China, we expect exports to keep growing during the 90-day tariff-suspension period."
Lucas Zheng, founder of US-based logistics information provider Samezip, told the Global Times that exporters and logistics firms are already resuming or placing new orders in the number of hundreds of containers to replenish or store stocks that were depleted after the hefty tariffs suspended cross-Pacific trade for about seven weeks.
Many of these orders are items which the US market has a reliance of Chinese supplies, such as medical equipment, furniture, building materials and flooring, Zheng said.
Zhejiang's Yiwu, the renowned global hub for small commodity trade, is also seeing a swift rebound in US purchases following the tariff adjustment.
US buyers have reached out for procurement and are scrambling to book flights to Yiwu to secure Halloween and Christmas products, said Jiang Jiangping, vice president of the Yiwu Arts and Crafts Chamber of Commerce and a Christmas decoration merchant at Yiwu International Trade Market.
"Some buyers told me that the sudden surge in urgent travel bookings has driven up airfares from some US cities to Zhejiang in recent days," Jiang told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Jiang said that Yiwu merchants welcome the tariff adjustment but stressed that due to uncertainty in US trade policy, they are diversifying into emerging markets, such as South America, Africa, and Central Asia, which now account for a growing share of their business.
Zhou Peng, another Yiwu-based trader, told the Global Times on Wednesday that "our business has quickly recovered ... We have a large volume of goods ready to ship, and our US clients are eager to receive them." He added that although some US tariffs still apply, the current rates are much more acceptable for the clients compared to before.
The rebound in US orders shows that normal trade activities between China and the US, once hampered by high tariffs, are quickly returning due to the strong and rigid demand, said He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization.
"This not only highlights the complementarity and deep interconnection between the world's two largest economies, but also proves that the high tariffs previously triggered by the US were unsustainable," He told the Global Times.
Call for further consensus
Despite the uptick in trade activity, experts and industry insiders remain cautiously optimistic due to uncertainties surrounding upcoming talks and tariffs that remain relatively high after the reduction.
He said that while the outcome of this round of talks was "better than expected," it's only a first step. "The 90-day 'freeze period' creates room for further negotiation, but the process is still clouded by potential shifts in US policy," He said.
Matt Priest, President and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, agreed the deal marked a good step toward easing tensions, however, "we're not across the finish line yet," Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing Priest.
Amid the uncertainties, some of the Chinese ports' international shipping routes are undergoing a lot of transformation. "While North American routes remain under cautious adjustment, emerging markets, including Latin America, Africa, are seeing steady route expansion, becoming crucial alternatives for Chinese exports seeking new growth channels," per a statement from the Shangdong Port Group Co sent to the Global Times.
A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce said China hopes that the US side will, on the basis of this meeting, continue to work with China, move in the same direction, and fully rectify its erroneous practice of imposing unilateral tariffs, following the China-US joint statement issued on Monday.
He stressed that "the previous US unilateral tariffs seriously violated market principles and economic logic, and the US needs to demonstrate genuine sincerity in implementing the agreement and respond to China's concerns more constructively in future talks."
