China has announced it will suspend “special port fees” on U.S. vessels for one year, in tandem with Washington’s halt to tariffs on Chinese ships, as the tentative trade ceasefire between the two economic giants begins to solidify.
The U.S. and China have been locked in a turbulent trade and tariff conflict for months. Still, following a summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in South Korea last month, both sides agreed to ease certain retaliatory measures.
At one point, duties on both sides had reached prohibitive triple-digit levels, hampering trade between the world’s two largest economies and snarling global supply chains.
The suspension of the port fees, which applied to ships operated by or built in the United States that visited Chinese ports, began at 13:01 (0501 GMT) on Monday, a transport ministry statement said.
The US shipbuilding industry was dominant after World War II, but has gradually declined and now accounts for just 0.1 percent of global output.
The sector is now dominated by Asia, with China building nearly half of all ships launched, ahead of South Korea and Japan.
Separately, Beijing said it would suspend sanctions against US subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean, one of South Korea’s largest shipbuilders.
The year-long suspension of measures against Hanwha, effective from November 10, was linked to the US halting port fees it had levied on Chinese-built and operated ships, China’s commerce ministry said in an online statement.
“In light of this (US suspension)… China has decided to suspend the relevant measures” for one year, it said.
China had imposed sanctions on five US subsidiaries of Hanwha in October, accusing them of supporting a US government “Section 301” investigation that found Beijing’s dominance of the shipbuilding industry unreasonable.
Organisations and individuals in China had been banned from cooperating with Hanwha Shipping LLC, Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc., Hanwha Ocean USA International LLC, Hanwha Shipping Holdings LLC and HS USA Holdings Corp.
A planned probe into whether the Section 301 investigation impacted the “security and development interests” of China’s shipbuilding industry and supply chain had also been shelved for one year, according to the transport ministry.
China’s President Xi Jinping (R) and US President Donald Trump.. US President Donald Trump said on May 14, 2020, he is no mood to speak with China’s Xi Jinping, warning darkly he might cut off ties with the rival superpower over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “I have a very good relationship, but I just — right now I don’t want to speak to him,” Trump told Fox Business. (Photo by Jim WATSON and PETER KLAUNZER / various sources / AFP)
In another apparent move Monday to implement recent agreements, China’s commerce ministry said it had added more than a dozen fentanyl precursors to a list of controlled exports to the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Washington has long accused Beijing of failing to effectively crack down on flows of the deadly chemicals underpinning a devastating drug crisis in the United States.
While the Chinese statement did not mention recent negotiations, the White House said on November 1 that Beijing had agreed to “stop the shipment of certain designated chemicals to North America” — part of “significant measures to end the flow of fentanyl”.
The measures are the latest sign of a thaw in economic ties since the Xi-Trump meeting.
On Wednesday, China said it would extend the suspension of additional tariffs on US goods for one year, keeping them at 10 percent, and suspend some tariffs on soybeans and other US agricultural products.
China also suspended an export ban on gallium, germanium and antimony, metals crucial for modern technology, on Sunday.
Also following talks, Beijing agreed to halt for one year restrictions on the export of rare earths technology.
Washington in turn agreed to suspend for one year export restrictions on affiliates of blacklisted foreign companies in which they had at least a 50 percent stake, the Chinese commerce ministry said Wednesday.
© Agence France-Presse
