China's Coming Reductions in Import Barriers: A Short-Term or Long-Term Change?

SHANGHAI -- The Chinese government is to reduce import tariffs on popular consumer goods, and increase imports of such goods, as part of its efforts to boost domestic consumption. China’s State Council, or cabinet, announced after a meeting on Tuesday that it would begin a trial reduction of tariffs on certain types of popular goods by June. It also announced an expansion of the categories of imports benefiting from tax reductions.

China announced it is slashing import tariffs on 187 consumer products starting next month.

Tokyo (AFP) - A large business delegation left Japan Monday for China with hopes of being granted an audience with President Xi Jinping as the two countries take baby steps towards patching up tattered relations.

Having lambasted China throughout the U.S. election campaign, drumming up headlines with his pledges to slap 45 percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and to label the country a currency manipulator on his first day in office, Trump's presidency was a bitter pill to swallow for China's regime, which like many other nations, has voiced loud concerns in the past few days if Trump plans on following through with his threats.

While Canada and Mexico and soon other US "allies" have so far been spared the brunt of the Trump import tariffs on aluminum and steel imports as a result of "indefinite" exemptions for the duration of Nafta negotiations, China - the country that is the target of Peter Navarro's trade scorn - has not been so lucky, and the result has been an outpouring of increasingly hostile jawboning by Beijing, which while taking the Trump gambit in stride so far, is clearly concerned how far Trump could ratchet up protectionist measures.

In this bipolar market, where only momentum, liquidity, technicals and short squeezes matter, as well as the occasional kneejerk reaction to a flashing red headline (usually some lie out of Venezuela or Nigeria about an imminent OPEC meeting which has not even been scheduled), one thing that no longer seems to have an impact on prices is actual news and fundamentals.

SHANGHAI: China cut the value of its yuan currency against the US dollar for the second day in a row Wednesday, taking the reductions to 3.5 per cent this week — the largest in more than two decades. The move has reinforced concerns about the world's second largest economy, and analysts are divided over the reasons behind the move and the consequences it will have. Why is China doing this now?

Berlin (AFP) - China's Premier Li Keqiang will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, the third top-level talks this year between the export powers, amid growing disquiet over human rights and business rules.