As part of its commitment to the WTO, China will further slash import tariffs on over 100 categories of products, including from Bangladesh and Pakistan from January 1, 2006, involving vegetable oil, raw chemical materials, automobiles and parts.
Approved by the State Council, or China's cabinet, the move was taken to honour China's tariff reduction commitment upon its accession to the World Trade Organisation, the Customs Tariff Commission said in a statement.
Since China has fulfilled most of its tariff reduction obligations, the latest plan will not have a big impact on China's overall tariff level, the statement said.
China's overall level of import tariffs will remain at 9.9 per cent in 2006, compared with 10.4 per cent in 2004.
The average import tariff will be 15.2 per cent for farm produce and nine per cent for industrial goods, it said.
As of 2006, China will continue its tariff and quota management of wheat, corn and five other farm produce items and three categories of chemical fertilizers, and abolish tariffs and quota management of soybean oil, palm oil and rapeseed oil.
China will also stop collecting export tariffs on textile goods, and impose provisional tariff rates on over 60 categories of exports as of January 1, 2006, according to the statement.
China will impose more preferential import tariffs on products from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as of 2006 according to the agreement on the China-ASEAN free trade area.
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