Q: It is understood that during the China-U.S. economic and trade consultations in Kuala Lumpur, the two sides reached joint arrangements to address each other’s concerns regarding trade and economic issues. Could MOFCOM provide more details on the consensuses of these talks?

A: The presidents of China and the United States recently held a meeting in Busan, the Republic of Korea, where they had an in-depth discussion on China-U.S. economic and trade relations and other issues, and agreed to strengthen cooperation in economic and trade areas among others. China stands ready to work with the U.S. to jointly uphold and implement the important consensus reached by the presidents.

Through the consultations in Kuala Lumpur, the economic and trade teams of China and the U.S. have reached consensus on the following key outcomes:

First, the U.S. side will remove the 10-percent so-called “fentanyl tariffs” imposed on Chinese goods, including goods from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region, and will suspend, for an additional year, the 24-percent reciprocal tariffs levied on Chinese goods. China will make corresponding adjustments to its countermeasures against the aforementioned U.S. tariffs. Both sides have agreed to continue extending certain tariff exclusion measures.

Second, the U.S. side will suspend for one year the implementation of the Affiliates Rule announced on September 29 that expands its “entity-list” export restrictions to any entity that is at least 50 percent owned by one or more entities on the list. China will suspend the implementation of relevant export control measures announced on October 9 for one year and will study and refine specific plans.

Third, the U.S. side will suspend the implementation of measures under its Section 301 investigation targeting China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries for one year. In response, the Chinese side will correspondingly suspend the implementation of its countermeasures against the U.S. side for one year once the U.S. suspension takes effect.

In addition, the two sides also reached consensus on issues including anti-drug cooperation on fentanyl, expanding agricultural product trade, and the handling of individual cases involving relevant enterprises. Both sides further confirmed the outcomes of the Madrid economic and trade consultations. The U.S. side made positive commitments in areas including as investment, and China will properly resolve issues related to TikTok with the U.S. side.

The China-U.S. economic and trade consultations in Kuala Lumpur have yielded positive results, demonstrating that by upholding the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit, and through dialogue and cooperation, the two sides can find solutions to problems. Noting that the outcomes are hard won, China looks forward to working with the U.S. side to jointly ensure the implementation of the consensus, and inject more certainty and stability into bilateral economic and trade cooperation as well as the global economy.