Keqiang’s 3,732 Ways To Boost The Chinese Economy Via Tariff Cuts
China’s Premier, Li Keqiang, has indicated a further round of import duty reductions is possible as soon as October. That would represent a fiscal stimulus – tariffs are a tax on consumption – as well as burnishing China’s free trade credentials. Such a move would follow an initial round of tariff reductions covering $64 billion of basic consumer products in June.

There’s a further 3,732 product lines that could benefit from lowered MFN duties. The largest in terms of potential tariff reductions include passenger cars ($11 billion of duties paid at a 25% rate), processor semiconductors ($4 billion at 3%) and LCD devices ($3 billion at 9%). In the autos sector a cut in duties would help exporters from Germany ($13 billion of exports in 2017, led by Daimler) and Japan ($9 billion including Toyota) while disadvantaging American products which are subject to section 301 retaliatory duties of 25%.