The US and China have agreed to a 90-day suspension of the trade war that had seen tariffs between the two countries rise to more than 100%.After a weekend of talks, the two sides announced that tariffs imposed since 2 April, which amounted to 125% for imports into the two countries, would mostly be suspended, with a 10% rate remaining from each side.The US will also continue to apply the 20% tariff rate it introduced earlier in the year related to the fentanyl crisis.This means US tariffs on Chinese imports will now stand at 30% while Beijing’s tariffs on goods from the US will stand at 10%.In a statement, the White House said that the agreement recognised “the importance of their bilateral economic and trade relationship to both countries and the global economy” and the ”importance of a sustainable, long-term, and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship”. Ahead of the suspension, companies had been busy front-loading shipments , meaning it is likely inventories are well stocked for the coming weeks.While it appears that the agreement does not cover the removal of the de minimis exemption for parcels from China, it does mean that the rate these shipments will need to pay will be greatly reduced.The air cargo industry has been concerned that the tariff rates and extra customs scrutiny applied to e-commerce goods from China as a result of the removal of the exemption could cause a collapse in volumes and a capacity overshoot.Indeed, recent figures published by data providers appeared to show the transpacific market heading in this direction. After taking the aforementioned actions, the two parties will establish a mechanism to continue discussions.The US had previously suspended for 90 days a host of other tariff rates applied to other countries with which it had a trade imbalance.



sourse: aircargo news