China reduces tariffs on the import of Argentinian food products

The Ministry of Agroindustry informed that the People's Republic of China, through Statement no. 4/2018, arranges adjustments to the current tariff structure as of July 1st, 2018, this affecting 1,449 consumer products not produced by the Asian country or for which it is a net importer. 387 of them are agroindustrial products.

This measure was taken within the framework of the negotiations with China, that have been developing through the Agroindustrial Markets Secretariat, in charge of Ms Marisa Bircher, together with the Agriculture Department in China through the Argentinian ambassador, Mr Diego Guelar, and the Agricultural Adviser, Mr Hernán Viola.

For the agroindustrial sector, 43 products have a special interest regarding exports to China:

• Fisheries: the tariff dropped from 10% to 5% regarding hake (whole, frozen or filleted), frozen skate and tilapia, salted anchovies and frozen crabs.
• Dairy products: the tariff on ice cream dropped from 19% to 12%.
• Premixes and bread/pastries: an important drop from 25% to 10% for premixes for bread/pastries. In the case of dry pasta, stuffed pasta (e.g., ravioli, except meat-stuffed), among others, a reduction from 15% to 10%.
• Foods and beverages: an important fall in the tariffs of several food products, many of them with a tariff of 35%-15%, to 10%-5%. This is the case of breakfast cereals; bulgur wheat; sweet biscuits; tinned tomatoes, peas and beans; olives; processed peanuts; tinned fruit; fruit juice; bottled water; beer and vinegar.

This list joins the 32 agroindustrial products that were also approved regarding the reduction of their tariffs in December 2017.

The list also includes pork products (specifically raw, cooked and cured hams and shoulders) with tariff reductions by 10%.