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Washington and Beijing have jointly published lists of products that could be eligible for lower tariffs, marking the first detailed follow-through on an agreement struck between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at their summit last week. The two sides committed to working toward reducing duties on roughly $60bn worth of bilateral trade, split evenly between $30bn of Chinese imports into the United States and $30bn of American exports into China.
The lists, released on Sunday and confirmed by China's Ministry of Commerce on Monday, identify 77 categories of Chinese goods and more than 1,600 categories of US products that will be considered for more favourable tariff treatment. The breadth of the American list reflects the wide range of agricultural, food and specialty products that US negotiators are seeking to push into the Chinese market.
Among the Chinese items flagged for potential relief are microwave ovens, fish hooks, artificial flowers and weighing scales. On the US side, the goods under consideration include poultry, dairy products, noodles, eggs, peanuts, canned tomatoes, pure-breed breeding horses and silk. The inclusion of such a diverse mix of consumer and agricultural products underscores the piecemeal nature of the arrangement.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the deal would expand market access for approximately 30 percent of American exports to China and deliver benefits to US consumers as well. In a statement, Greer framed the agreement as part of a broader push for fairer and more balanced trade, saying Washington would keep pressing Beijing to honour commitments on agricultural and energy purchases, pursue balanced trade in non-sensitive goods, and secure access for American farmers, manufacturers, businesses and workers.
China's Commerce Ministry, which confirmed the lists shortly after the White House announcement, described the arrangement as a "reciprocal tariff reduction framework of $30 billion for $30 billion" and said the two sides would continue talks with the aim of reaching consensus. The ministry said the plan would help stabilise China-US trade, improve conditions for Chinese exports of the affected products, satisfy domestic market demand and deepen cooperation in agricultural products, energy, manufactured goods and consumer goods.
The announcement follows a summit that was long on ceremony but short on concrete outcomes. Trump and Xi concluded their talks on Friday without announcing major breakthroughs on the many disputes dividing the world's two largest economies, which range from trade and artificial intelligence to Taiwan. The tariff lists represent one of the few tangible deliverables to emerge from the meeting.
Both leaders are expected to meet again on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November, and then at the Group of 20 gathering in Miami, Florida, in December. Those encounters will be closely watched for signs of whether the tentative tariff framework can be widened or whether it will stall amid continuing strategic rivalry.
Trade between the two countries has fallen sharply since Trump, a longstanding critic of free trade policies, returned to the White House in January last year. According to the US Trade Representative, two-way trade totalled $495bn in 2025, a decline of 25 percent from the previous year. The contraction reflects a combination of higher tariffs, supply-chain diversification and heightened political tension between Washington and Beijing.
Analysts cautioned that the newly published lists are unlikely to alter the overall trajectory of US-China trade. Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, said the announcement did not signal a major shift, noting that both sides had largely selected goods that do not move the needle on aggregate trade flows. She said the measures might lower some prices for American consumers but would not produce a dramatic change in inflation figures or generate meaningful relief for most US buyers.
Elms added that the same logic applies to the Chinese list. Although it contains many different agricultural products, she noted that most of those items are either not exported to China at all or are not shipped in significant quantities. That assessment suggests the economic footprint of the agreement may be far smaller than its symbolic value as a sign of continued engagement between the two powers.
For American farmers and food producers, the inclusion of poultry, dairy, eggs, peanuts and canned tomatoes offers at least the prospect of renewed access to Chinese buyers, though the practical effect will depend on how many of the 1,600-plus categories ultimately receive reduced rates. For Chinese manufacturers of household goods such as microwave ovens and weighing scales, the framework could ease cost pressures on exports, but the modest scale of the list limits the potential upside.
The agreement also leaves unresolved the deeper structural issues that have driven the tariff war, including subsidies, technology transfer, market access for services and the role of state-owned enterprises. The two governments have framed the arrangement as a step toward stabilisation rather than a comprehensive settlement, and further negotiations are expected in the coming months.
Whether the lists translate into durable tariff reductions will depend on follow-through in both capitals and on the broader political atmosphere heading into the APEC and G20 meetings. For now, the publication of the lists gives both sides a concrete talking point and a measure of momentum, even as independent trade experts question how much the limited package can realistically achieve.
With two-way commerce already down by a quarter in a single year, the stakes for both economies remain high. The coming rounds of talks will test whether Washington and Beijing can convert a modest, carefully circumscribed list of products into a more substantial framework, or whether the latest announcement will be remembered as a modest gesture amid a continuing drift toward economic separation.
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