On September 16, China’s Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced on its website that China will extend tariff exemptions for 81 products imported from the United States by seven months. This is the fifth time that China has extended tariff exemptions for U.S. goods.

In the announcement (link in Chinese), the Commission said that tariff exemptions for some U.S. goods will expire by September 17, so the agency decided to extend the exemption until April 16, 2022. Covered items include some wood products, medical equipment, and electric vehicle batteries.

As part of the countermeasures to the U.S. Section 301 tariffs on $370 billion worth of Chinese imports, China imposed counter-tariffs on billions of U.S. goods. China had previously granted exemptions to some of the goods and the exemption period was usually one year. After the one-year period, China started to extend the exemption period beginning in 2020 (link in Chinese).