US to seek public comment on which Chinese goods get tariff cuts

Trump’s trade chief Jamieson ⁠Greer says US tariffs on ‌products from China are likely to always be higher than for other countries

US Trade Representative Jamieson ⁠Greer said on Tuesday that the government would seek public comment on which Chinese goods should be eligible for lower tariffs.

Washington and Beijing have agreed to a joint “Board of Trade” to ‌initially determine about US$30 billion of non-strategic goods on which the two countries can lower or eliminate tariffs.

Greer said a public notice will be issued soon.

Asked at a forum on what the US got out of President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President ⁠Xi Jinping in Beijing beyond sales of 200 Boeing planes and $17 billion in agriculture ‌purchases, Greer said: “I get to keep tariffs on China, which is pretty awesome.”

He added that US tariffs on ‌Chinese goods are likely to always be higher than for other countries.

Greer ⁠said the ⁠US has “come to terms with the fact that there’s not going to be some giant ‌comprehensive reform of the way the Chinese political system works, including all these economic elements of ‌it, but ‌we can have some managed trade”.