China will lower tariffs on more than 850 products starting next January 1 with the aim of "expanding imports and promoting coordinated trade development , " state news agency Xinhua reported.

Among the products that will be affected by the rebate are frozen pork , high-tech components such as semiconductor test equipment and memory chips, and medicines to treat diabetes and asthma .

"The adjustments will be made to expand imports, promote the coordinated development of trade and advance the high-quality development of the joint construction of the Strip and the Road (the Chinese international infrastructure construction macro project)", explains the Tariff Commission of the State Council of China in a document collected Monday by Xinhua.

The source indicated that this tariff reduction will also apply to frozen avocado and non-frozen orange juice , in addition to other products, "in an effort to moderately increase the importation of everyday consumer goods that are relatively scarce in the country. or that have foreign characteristics. "

Medications, at "zero rate"

"China will apply a zero import rate to pharmaceutical products containing alkaloids for the treatment of asthma, as well as to raw materials for the production of new diabetes medicines ," the text adds.

In the case of other products, the new tax is not required, although the document indicates that it will be less than that applied to the products of its business partners with the status of "most favored nation".

This announcement comes 10 days after Washington and Beijing reached a first phase of agreement on the long path towards the resolution of the commercial war that confronts both powers. In any case, no reference to the United States appears in the text.

The reduction in the import price of pork, one of the basic products in the diet of the Chinese, occurs at a time when the national herd of gorrinos has been decimated by an epidemic of African swine fever detected in August 2018.

The Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Pos t interprets that the gesture of the Chinese authorities seeks to "open the economy to a freer international market" and affirms that the terms used evoke those of the press conference in which China announced the said first phase of the trade agreement ten days ago.

New sales on the way

Also, the text says, during 2020 "China will continue to apply favorable tariff rates to goods from less developed countries that have established diplomatic relations" with the Asian country.

It is a nod to the small Central American and Pacific countries that have recently changed the diplomatic ties they had with Taiwan for new ones with China, in a maneuver that seeks to isolate Taipei internationally, considered by Beijing as a rebel province that has to return to his sovereignty.

In addition, the source indicated that there will be more rebates in the future for products from Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Iceland, Pakistan or Australia , among other countries, under bilaterally signed free trade agreements.

Since, at the beginning of last year, the US began a trade war with China for - among other matters - the imbalance of the trade balance , the theft of intellectual property and the forced transfer of technology, the relations between the two largest economies of the planet have deteriorated rapidly.

The clashes between Washington and Beijing are not limited to the commercial, but also encompass a technological struggle and the presence and influence in the international arena.

In addition, trade tensions between the two major world economic powers go beyond bilateral relations and have profound global consequences.

In its latest global growth forecasts, published in October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its expansion projections to 3% this year, two tenths less than in July, weighed down by doubts about the possible resolution of this dispute.

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