US and China name $30 billion each in goods for possible tariff cuts

The United States and China have published reciprocal lists of goods worth roughly $30 billion on each side for possible tariff reductions. The lists identify products that could receive more favorable treatment after the countries complete their own legal processes; they do not announce tariffs already cut. For businesses trading those goods, the immediate change is a defined set of candidates for relief, with no announced date for lower rates.

The White House describes the lists as products recommended for reduced tariff treatment. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the recommendations concern non-sensitive goods and could benefit from more favorable tariffs in the future. China’s Ministry of Commerce said the two sides would discuss a reciprocal $30-billion-for-$30-billion framework and seek consensus, according to Al Jazeera.

What is on the lists

The US list covers 77 categories of Chinese goods, while China’s list contains 1,619 types of US products, according to the Guardian. Al Jazeera separately reported 77 Chinese goods and more than 1,600 US products. The figures describe the breadth of the recommendations, not the number of tariff changes that have taken effect.

Products on the US side include bed linen, garden umbrellas, toasters, fish hooks and billiard balls, the Guardian reported. Al Jazeera also identified microwave ovens, artificial flowers and weighing scales among Chinese goods listed for consideration. The examples show how much of the proposal concerns ordinary household and consumer products.

The Guardian reported that the Chinese list also includes several animals for breeding. Han Lin, the Asia Group’s China director, said its entries for animals including donkeys, whales and dolphins illustrate how detailed tariff codes can be. Their presence on a list is a classification detail, rather than evidence of a substantial trade flow in each listed animal.

How the proposal would work

The White House says the United States and China will consider the listed imports with a view to reciprocal reductions, consistent with each side’s domestic laws and processes. Greer said the US-China Board of Trade, established during President Donald Trump’s May visit to Beijing, manages trade in non-sensitive products. His statement followed President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington.

Greer characterized the proposal as improving market access for about 30 percent of US exports to China. That is the administration’s description of the potential reach of the recommendations, not a measure of tariff cuts already delivered. The Guardian reported that semiconductors, batteries and electric vehicles are outside the lists; those strategic categories remain part of the broader trade dispute.

Neither the White House release nor the reporting reviewed here gives an implementation date or product-by-product rate changes. The Guardian explicitly reported that no timeline had been announced. The next decisive information for importers and exporters will be whether each government adopts reductions through its own procedures and publishes the resulting rates and dates.

How much could change

The announcement follows a meeting between Trump and Xi in Washington. The Guardian described the lists as a step away from the trade war that dominated much of last year, while reporting that a wider trade truce had received only a two-month extension. The proposed cuts therefore sit within a larger relationship in which other tariffs and strategic disputes remain unresolved.

Zhu Tian, a vice-president and co-dean at the China Europe International Business School, called the move a positive step but not a major breakthrough, the Guardian reported. He said the proposed reductions cover a relatively small share of US-China trade and leave tariffs on more strategic goods in place. Han Lin described the approach as managed stabilization rather than a trade reset.

Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation, told Al Jazeera that the listed goods were unlikely to make a major difference to overall trade flows or US inflation. Al Jazeera also reported, citing the US Trade Representative, that two-way trade totaled $495 billion in 2025, down 25 percent from the previous year. Those figures provide scale for the proposal; they do not show what economic effect any eventual tariff reductions will have.