As part of a move to lower prices and increase the availability of everyday consumer goods and popular food items, the Chinese government has lowered tariffs on more than 850 items, beginning 1 January.
Several seafood product types were included in the list of items subject to lower tariffs, according to the official tariff-reduction list released in “Announcement 227” from the State Council, which listed 859 commodities that would see tariff cuts.
China’s import taxes on frozen herring and frozen cod were cut from 5 percent to 2 percent, while the tariffs on frozen crab and ribbonfish were lowered from 7 percent to 5 percent.
A range of tuna categories (yellowfin, bigeye and long-fin) also received a reduction, moving from 7 percent to 6 percent tariff rates.
Frozen cod was cut from 7 percent to 5 percent, and the rate on “frozen narrow cod” has been trimmed from 7 percent to 2 percent.
Greenland flounder (the Mandarin word is interchangeable with flatfish and sole) has seen its rate cut from 7 percent to 5 percent, and the category “frozen flounder” has been cut from 7 percent to 2 percent.
There’s also been a significant drop for live, chilled and frozen abalone, from 10 to 7 percent, and on “long-sized Northern shrimp” and “small frozen shrimp” from 5 percent to 2 percent.
Tariffs on the category of “improved breeding” varieties of whale and dolphin and manatee from 10 percent to zero percent.
As it has done in the past, China is using cuts in tariffs as a means of controlling inflation on food items – tariffs on imported pork has been cut from 12 percent to 8 percent in the latest round of cuts. It’s also using the new round of cuts as a stimulant for consumption spending, though seafood is additionally subject to taxes at the retail and restaurant level in China.
Photo courtesy of Heng Lim/Shutterstock
