China Will Impose 5% Tariff on US Crude

China's plans to levy 5% tariff on US crude imports from September 1 caused a drop in benchmark crude prices Friday, jeopardized seaborne US crude shipments heading to China and limited buying interest in US crude from Chinese refiners.
This is the first set of tariffs imposed by China on US crude so far, despite other key US energy products such as LNG already facing a 25% tariff by Beijing since the trade conflict began last year, S&P Global reported.
China's latest levy on US crude is part of new tariffs on $75 billion worth of US goods imports that will be implemented in two batches from September 1 and December 15, the State Council's Tariff Commission said in a statement Friday on the Ministry of Finance website.
It said the tariffs are in retaliation for the US government's 10% tariff on around $300 billion worth of Chinese goods announced on August 15, despite the two countries arriving at a truce on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Japan.
"The US measures have led to the continuous escalation of China-US economic and trade frictions, which have greatly harmed the interests of China, the US and other countries, and have also seriously threatened the multilateral trading system and the principle of free trade," the statement said.