China’s ministry of finance announced on December 6 that they were waiving tariffs on US soybeans and pork. The announcement was made in an effort to help tariff negotiations improve, giving a little bit of leverage to President Trump. Beijing had originally promised to lift the tariffs in September, although that lift did not come into fruition until now.
The two sides are negotiating the terms of the “Phase 1” agreement announced by President Trump in October. Phase 1 was an effort by Trump to postpone previously announced tariffs, attempting to get China to come to the table. The US and China have been in an ongoing trade war for months now, continually announcing, enforcing, and redacting billions of dollars worth of tariffs on each others export of goods. The trade war has disrupted trade globally and threatened to damage the economies of both the US and China.
A US tariff hike on an additional $160 billion worth of Chinese goods is set to take place starting December 15. If the tariffs are enforced then nearly every good imported from China would be subjected to the tariffs, this includes cell phones, laptops, monitors, and many more items. At this very moment the US seems to be fully dug in, with President Trump announcing this week that he might be willing to wait until the 2020 elections to settle the trade war. We’ll have to wait and see if the Dec 15 tariffs are imposed and what the potential economic/political effects will be.
Source:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-tariff-on-pork-soybeans-waived-as-two-countries-negotiate-settlement/
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/11/769469085/trump-announces-phase-one-of-trade-deal-with-china