China's tariffs on US goods: balancing domestic protection, strategic imports

Donald Trump's tariffs on China are making the headlines, but China's own levies on imports from the US are also noteworthy. China uses this tool of trade policy to protect industries where it believes the nation is self-sufficient, while keeping tariffs lower on sectors where US imports are viewed as key to an overall development strategy.

CEIC recently added a range of deeper Chinese tariff datasets. Their granular detail breaks down the range of import levies on different goods.

Animal products (42.53%), fats & oils (33%), textiles (32.19%), and footwear (32.82%) have the highest weighted average tariffs. And as our second chart shows, these protected sectors also tend to see the lowest total imports by value.

By contrast, US-made machinery and equipment face relatively moderate tariffs (25%) but their import value is the highest, reaching USD 37.9 billion in 2024. China's own manufacturers use these high-value-added capital goods to strengthen their own competitiveness and efficiency. 

Our scatterplot combines both of these themes, identifying two broad groups of "protected" and "strategic import" sectors.

• The newly added tariff data categorizes various products under HS (Harmonized System) 8-digit and 10-digit codes. Our methodology includes median tariff rates within categories to avoid outliers and weights chapter-level tariff rates by import values; contact us for more details if required.