Analyst and China expert Arnaud Bertrand published an interesting analysis of the Trump-Xi meeting on Oct. 30, showing that it resulted in a major reduction in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. While the stated number is 47%, when you look into the details, “China actually negotiated him [Trump] down to approximately 16% on his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs [way down from the 125% peak] … AND they got the so-called ‘fentanyl tariff’ cut by half on top of that.”
This is because there was already a 20.7% tariff on Chinese goods in March. Following Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcement and China’s retaliatory tariffs, this number quickly rose to 145%. Add to this the 20% “fentanyl tariffs” and the grand total on Chinese goods was 165%! Bertrand writes: “The fact that the OVERALL rate is now down to 47%, given the fact that the deal includes a 50% reduction on the fentanyl tariff (from 20% down to 10%), means that China has now negotiated the Liberation Day down from 125% to about 16%, since 20.7% + 10% fentanyl + 16% Liberation Day is approximately equal to 47% overall tariffs (well, 46.7% to be exactly precise). This means that when it comes to Liberation Day tariffs, China will stand roughly on par with the EU (who are at 15%) or South Korea (who also will likely be around 15%).”
