China announced on Tuesday that it will impose additional tariffs, reaching up to 15%, on key U.S. agricultural imports. These include items like chicken, pork, soybeans, and beef. Furthermore, China is expanding restrictions on business dealings with U.S. companies.
The Commerce Ministry’s newly announced tariffs are scheduled to take effect on March 10. This action follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to increase tariffs on all Chinese imports to 20%, which went into effect on Tuesday.
Imports of U.S.-grown chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton will be subject to an additional 15% tariff, according to the announcement. Sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafood, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products will face a 10% tariff increase.
Also on Tuesday, Beijing added 10 more U.S. companies to its unreliable entity list. This designation prevents them from engaging in China-related import or export activities and from making new investments within the country.
The firms newly added to the list are TCOM,Limited Partnership; Stick Rudder Enterprises LLC; Teledyne Brown Engineering; Huntington Ingalls Industries; S3 AeroDefense; Cubic Corporation; TextOre; ACT1 Federal; Exovera and Planate Management Group.
This addition of 10 companies follows last month’s inclusion of fashion company PVH Group and biotechnology company Illumina on the unreliable entities list.
In a separate action, China added 15 U.S. companies to its export control list, including aerospace and defense firms such as General Dynamics Land Systems and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, among others.
“China has decided to place 15 U.S. entities that threaten China’s national security and interests on the export control list, prohibiting the export of dual-use items to these entities,” the ministry stated.
China is a significant importer of U.S. agricultural goods, although its purchases decreased after Trump initiated a trade war during his first term but later rebounded.
In 2021-22, the U.S. saw record export values to China for soybeans, corn, beef, chicken meat, tree nuts, and sorghum. Cotton exports to China also showed a recovery, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. agricultural exports to China reached $33.8 billion in fiscal year 2023 and $36.4 billion in fiscal year 2022.
However, China has been diversifying its sources for agricultural imports, increasing its soybean purchases from countries like Brazil and Argentina.
The Commerce Ministry indicated that approximately two dozen U.S. agricultural exports, including chicken feet and wings, would be subject to the additional 15% tariffs, while 711 items would face the extra 10% tariff.