President Trump Announces Delay on Oct. 1 Tariff Hike

President Trump, in a pair of tweets yesterday, announced he plans to delay the imposition of an additional 5% duty on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods until October 15. Before this announcement, duties on the $250 billion worth of goods were set to increase from 25% to 30% on October 1, 2019.

The conciliatory move comes after China announced it was exempting 16 items from retaliatory tariffs it had imposed in response to the American tariffs. These exemptions cover medicines, insecticides, but not agricultural goods. The Chinese tariffs on U.S. soybeans, corn, pork, and other agricultural commodities have severely harmed the U.S. farm and agriculture sector.

President Trump recently announced his intention to impose an additional 15% duty on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods in two parts. The first part, commonly referred to as List 4A, was tariffed at 15% on September 1. Absent a deal between the two nations, the second part, List 4B, will be hit on December 15.