On February 24, 2019, President Trump announced via tweet that he would be delaying the increase of Section 301 tariffs on China. The U.S. planned to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products from 10% to 25% on March 1, 2019 (See our previous post here). However, in his February 24 tweet, the President expressed his approval with the status of the trade talks, stating that the parties had made “substantial progress…on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues.” President Trump did not specify a new deadline date for imposing additional tariffs or concluding the trade talks, but anticipates hosting a summit for both himself and President Xi at Mar-a-Lago to conclude the agreement. Just hours after the tweet, President Trump also made a remark at the Governor’s Ball on the bilateral talks, saying, “And if all works well, we’re going to have some very big news over the next week or two.”

I am pleased to report that the U.S. has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues. As a result of these very……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2019

….productive talks, I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1. Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a Summit for President Xi and myself, at Mar-a-Lago, to conclude an agreement. A very good weekend for U.S. & China!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2019

We will continue to monitor this situation closely. For more information on the Section 301 tariffs on China, please contact Nithya Nagarajan, Cortney Morgan, Jeffrey Neeley, Robert Stang, or Beau Jackson.