China’s top leaders have pledged to help companies slammed by higher US tariffs but are holding back on major moves after trade talks with the US kept businesses and planners in limbo.
At their summer economic planning meeting, the powerful politburo of the ruling Communist Party pledged to stabilise foreign trade and investment.
“We must assist foreign trade enterprises that have been severely impacted, strengthen financing support, and promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade,” the official Xinhua News Agency said in reporting the closed-door meeting on Wednesday.
It mentioned export tax rebates and free trade pilot zones but gave no other specifics.
The inconclusive outcome of two days of trade talks in Stockholm, Sweden, leaves open the question of higher tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States.
Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng said the two sides had agreed to work on extending a deadline for higher tariffs.
The US side said the extension was discussed, but not decided.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters after the talks that President Donald Trump would decide whether to extend the August 12 deadline for an agreement or to let tariffs that have been paused for 90 days return to a higher level.
“We haven’t given the sign-off,” Bessent said, though he emphasised that the talks had been “very constructive”.
China remains one of the biggest challenges for the Trump administration after it has struck deals over elevated tariff rates with other key trading partners, including Britain, Japan and the European Union.
Many analysts had expected the Stockholm talks to result in an extension of current tariff levels, which stand at a US tariff of 30 per cent on Chinese goods and a Chinese tariff of 10 per cent on US products, far lower than the triple-digit percentage rates raised in April.
The truce in the tariffs war to allow time for talks allowed exporters and other traders to ramp up shipments in hopes of beating any higher tariffs that might follow.
The meeting headed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping mostly reiterated Beijing’s priorities for the year, including a need to “unleash domestic demand”, which has lagged, leading to a surge of exports by industries unable to find growth at home.
It also stressed the need to promote jobs and prevent a “large-scale relapse into poverty”.
The economy “has demonstrated strong vitality and resilience”, the Xinhua report said, but it acknowledged many risks and challenges.
That includes reining in brutal competition that has led to damaging price wars among auto makers and some other manufacturers and managing excess capacity in some industries, it said.
China’s economy expanded at a 5.2 per cent annual pace in April-June, slowing slightly from the previous quarter.
Even with the hiatus in higher tariffs, companies are feeling a pinch.
Industrial profits in China fell 1.8 per cent in the first half of the year and 4.3 per cent in June, according to data released this week.
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