China’s government said the US decision to exempt certain consumer electronics from its so-called reciprocal tariffs is a small step toward rectifying its wrongdoings and urged Washington to do more to revoke the levies.
President Donald Trump’s administration excluded smartphones, computers and other electronics from the increased import duties on Friday, narrowing the scope of his tariffs of 125% on goods from China and a baseline 10% on imports from most other countries.
“This is a small step by the US toward correcting its wrongful action of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs’”, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement posted on its official WeChat account on Sunday. The ministry went on to urge the US to “take a big stride in completely abolishing the wrongful action, and return to the correct path of resolving differences through equal dialogue based on mutual respect.”
Trump’s latest exemptions cover almost $390 billion in US imports based on official US 2024 trade statistics, including more than $101 billion from China, according to data compiled by Gerard DiPippo, associate director of the Rand China Research Center.