(Photo: IC)

China has actively responded to the US government’s decision to exempt hundreds of Chinese commodities from additional tariffs by encouraging Chinese companies to purchase US agricultural products. The move shows China’s sincerity in promoting the development of trade consultations, an expert said.

He also stressed that the tariff exemption from the US indicates “some positive signals” for the upcoming bilateral trade talks in October.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that China and the US have become the most important trading partners and investment countries, sharing deep ties in the supply chain and common interests.

“It is simply unreasonable and unrealistic for the two countries to decouple from each other. A US-China decoupling would mean decoupling from opportunities and the future,” he commented.

China announced its support for domestic companies to purchase a certain amount of pork and soybeans from the US in line with market principles and WTO rules. China would exempt those products from additional punitive tariffs, according to a report from the Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday.

“China has a large market, and the potential is huge for China to import qualified agricultural products from the US. China hopes that the US can keep its promise and create favorable conditions for the two countries’ agricultural cooperation,” Xinhua cited Chinese government officials as saying.

Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times that China has been actively promoting the development of trade consultations, and continued support for the purchase of US agricultural products shows China's sincerity in such efforts.

China encouraged the purchase of US products after the US announced that it would exempt more than 400 commodities from additional punitive tariffs, according to the Xinhua report.

According to Bai, the tariff exemption from the US, ahead of the next round of high-level trade consultations scheduled for October, could “ease pressure on the US while releasing some positive signals for the upcoming bilateral trade talks.”

The US’ move to exempt over 400 Chinese goods from its tariff list also shows that the increasing tariffs have brought mounting pressure to the US, Bai said.

The Trump administration recently announced a decision to delay imposing additional tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods by about two weeks, from October 1 to October 15.