It's probably one of the biggest business stories right now that you haven't heard about both because the mainstream media has downplayed it and because the reports came just the public's attention was captured by last minute Christmas Eve shopping . And if you are aware of it, you haven't seen the name of a certain president who was instrumental in making it happen. So what is it?
China announced that it is cutting or eliminating tariffs on 700 of their import items. And why did the Chinese do that? Was it out of the kindness of their hearts? Or was it because a certain president applied pressure upon them which the MSM denounced as a trade war?
First let us look at the Bloomberg December 24 report which is notable by the absence of a certain president whose name they dare not mention, "China Cuts Tariffs on More Than 700 Goods Amid Open-Trade Drive."
China announced another round of tariff cuts, lowering import taxes on more than 700 goods from Jan. 1 as part of its efforts to open up the economy and lower costs for domestic consumers.
There will also be cuts to some export tariffs, and temporary import tariff rates will be as low as zero for some goods, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Monday.
And the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced this round of tariff cuts because it is chock full of good people. No pressure from a certain U.S. president whose name Bloomberg left unmentioned had any role whatever in this decision. Right?
With tariffs on U.S. soybeans stopping a key source of edible meal (often used for animal feed), China will implement zero tariffs on imports of a variety of meals including sunflower and canola.
And since soybeans are a key source of edible meal, we see the direction that is going in terms of tariffs. Again due to action taken by a president whose name Bloomberg seems to have forgotten in this article.
The nation will also scrap export tariffs on 94 items of products starting from the new year, including fertilizers, iron ore, coal tar, and wood pulp. Export tariffs on these goods are as high as 40 percent currently.
Also thanks to the unknown president who applied pressure on the Chinese that never seemed to occur to the previous president?
Reuters also avoids mention of President You-Know-Who in their December 23 story, "China to remove some import, export tariffs including alternative feed meals."
China plans to remove import and export tariffs in 2019 on a range of goods, including import taxes on alternative meals used in animal feed, to secure supplies of raw materials amid trade tensions with the United States and boosting outbound cargoes.
Hmmm... And just why did this happen at this time? Reuters merely tells us the what of it but not the why and especially not a certain name that you also won't find in their report.
Import tariffs on so-called alternative meals, which include rapeseed meal, cotton meal, sunflower meal and palm meal, will be removed from Jan. 1, 2019, the finance ministry said in a statement on its website on Monday.
China’s trade war with the United States has unsettled the global soy market after China virtually stopped all imports of U.S. soybeans after the imposition of additional 25 percent tariffs in July.
While China has resumed some purchases of U.S. soybeans, the tariffs on the oilseed from America remain in place, and the removal of tariffs on alternative meals could help improve the reliability of supply of animal feed meal in China, analysts said.
And who imposed the additional tariffs in July that has now caused China to lower or eliminate their tariffs? Reuters does not reveal that inconvenient name.
To boost overall imports, China also reduced the amount of items taxed on a list of temporary import tariffs to slightly more than 700, the ministry said, from more than 900 items....China’s economic growth slowed to 6.5 percent in the third quarter, the weakest pace since the global financial crisis and is expected to slow further next year amid the trade war with the United States.
Which explains their tariff cuts due to pressure from someone Reuters can't seem to name.
Many news outlets such as the Washington Post aren't even carrying this significant story (as of this writing) about the Chinese tariff cuts. Could it be from fear that, despite neither Reuters nor Bloomberg revealing the inconvenient name, their readers could easily figure who to credit to for the shift by China on trade policy?
