Imports of raw and finished natural stones from China by the United States exceeded 780 million dollars in 2018.
The backstop, called Donald Trump, has struck any hopes for removing the deadlock in the US-China trade negotiations and the imposition of tariffs on imports on both sides. Everything shows that the rift between the United States and China is further deepening following Friday’s announcements by United States Trade Representnative Robert Lighthizer that, following President Trump’s order, his country is raising duties from 10% to 25 % to imports of Chinese products.
What if the two sides about 10 days ago said that the deal was a matter of days … The knot was not tied when the Chinese asked for changes in the phraseology, which, according to Washington, virtually signaled a clear retreat from commitments. Thus, President Trump ordered the increase in tariffs on products of $ 200 billion worth and beyond; there was only an attempt to prevent a complete and definitive rupture. Yet, even if the negotiations continue in Beijing, progress is hardly achievable.
The list of products published by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) includes raw and finished natural stone products.
In the table below we can see the products in accordance with their HS Code and their import value of 2018.
According to statistics from ITC, UN COMTRADE, US Census Bureau, the total value of imports of natural stones imported by the US from China in 2018 stood at $ 780,484,000. As we can see in the Table, finished marble products account for 38.64% of the total value of imports while the granite only 32.13%.
The imposition of additional duties on imports of products from China will force US importers to look for new suppliers in order to meet their needs. In a next article, we will present the countries that could get US imports.
