China has retained cuts made in 2023 to tariffs on imported seafood products as it seeks to diversify and deepen its food sources.
China’s government announced provisional rates introduced in 2023 on several seafood categories will remain in place through 2024, including a 7 percent tariff on imported Atlantic salmon and a drop from 7 percent to 2 percent on frozen cod and pollock.
A more affluent, urban population is driving up China’s imports of premium seafood. The country’s overall food self-sufficiency level nosedived from 93.6 percent in 2000 to 65.8 percent in 2020 as imports soared, according to a report published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
The country introduced updates on provisional tariffs – lower than “most favored nation” rates – on 1,010 goods commencing 1 January 2024, with state-owned media presenting the reductions as proof of China’s willingness to open its markets. However, outlets omitted mention of the fact that most of the goods are products in which the country faces shortages, such as minerals, pharmaceuticals, and foodstuffs. China retains comparatively high tariffs on manufactured goods that it exports.
At the 2021 meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China President Xi Jinping vowed to remove import duties on 98 percent of goods from 21 African countries, the bulk of which comprise primary goods, including agricultural and fish products …
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