On Friday, October 11th, President Trump announced the postponement of additional duties on over $250 billion worth of Chinese goods amidst positive trade talks with China.

The additional tariffs were set to take effect on Tuesday, October 15th and would have increased tariffs on list 1, 2 and 3 items from 25% to 30%.

President Trump issued the delay as a result of China’s progress in addressing the United States’ concerns over intellectual property and their willingness to purchase an additional $40 to $50 billion worth of American commodities – namely agricultural products.

While numerous pundits are hopeful that President Trump and President Xi could finalize an official trade deal at the Asia-Pacific Cooperation meeting on November 16th and 17th, a deal that may effectively cancel the planned December 15th tariffs and potentially roll back already existing tariffs, we have all been down this road before (13 times to be exact, but hey…who’s counting?)

Given the lack of success with past discussions, we urge our customers and readers to continue to be cautious and to plan for tariffs to be a part of their supply chains for the foreseeable future.

Shapiro will continue to monitor the situation and provide status updates on our Section 301 Tariff News page as they become available.