Export Tariffs on Some Products to Be Cut Since July 1

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) recently announced that China will adjust export tariffs on some products since July 1, 2009. The tariff adjustment will cease imposing interim tariffs on foodstuff products including wheat, rice and soybean and industrial products such as sulphuric acid and steel wire, and reduce interim export tariffs for superfine talc powder, medium and small section steel, some fluoride chemical products, and some non-ferrous metals such as tungsten, molybdenum and indium as well as their intermediate products.

Meanwhile, in order to facilitate the steady development of chemical fertilizer industry and support agricultural production, adjustments will be made on export tariffs on chemical fertilizers and their raw materials. The special export tariffs imposed on yellow phosphorus, phosphorus ore, synthetic ammonia, phosphoric acid, ammonium chloride, calcium triple superphosphate and two-nutrient compound fertilizer will be abolished, 20% export tariff will be imposed on yellow phosphorus, 10-35% interim export tariffs will continue to be imposed on other phosphorus and phosphorus ore, and a uniform 10% interim export tariff will be imposed on synthetic ammonia, phosphoric acid, ammonium chloride, calcium triple superphosphate and fertilizer products (including fertilizers for industrial use) such as two-nutrient compound fertilizer. The slack season period of export tariff collection for urea, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate and diammonium phosphate will be extended: the applicable time of slack season export tariff rate for urea will be extended by one month, and that for ammonium dihydrogen phosphate and diammonium phosphate will be extended by one and a half months.