Customers choose imported wine at a duty-free store in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province on Saturday. The store - which is holding trial operations - is the first duty-free store in the city. The State Council, China's cabinet, announced plans to lower or remove import tariffs on more than 850 items starting from January 1. Photo: cnsphoto

China said on Tuesday that it would start to accept applications for import tax exemption on nearly 700 US products, including beef and natural gas, a move to support companies to increase imports from the US.

The effort is the latest taken by Chinese government to ramp up imports from the US and try to fulfill its commitment under the phase one trade agreement despite the novel coronavirus epidemic.

However, even as China shows willingness of holding its side of the bargain, US government seems to continue to impede China's development. In addition to squeeze Huawei and other Chinese technology enterprises, it is reported considering a ban on GE's engine exports to China, which could be fitted on China's C919 planes. 

"Within a certain period, China will stop imposing retaliatory tariffs (on some US imports) taken earlier in response to the US Section 301 measures and we will support companies to import products from the US, out of commercial considerations," read a notice issued by the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Tuesday. 

According to the commission, companies can apply for import duty exemption on nearly 700 US-imported products ranging from frozen beef to liquefied natural gas and handling robots. 

In early February, China announced to reduce import tariffs on about $75 billion worth of US importing goods. 

"Those measures show that China has been actively executing the terms it inked with the US government in the phase one trade deal," said Dong Yan, a senior researcher of global economics and politics with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

Some overseas media has cited US government officials questioning if China can stick to its commitments made in the phase one trade deal after outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. In particular, they doubted if China will be able to purchase billions of US agricultural goods.

"Chinese people's consumption capabilities have not been hampered by the coronavirus crisis. I believe implementation of the trade deal won't be severely impacted by the virus outbreak," she told the Global Times.

She also stressed that the trade deal, which established an institutional framework between the two countries, is in line with China's reform directions, which will not be reversed even with external disturbances. 

Bai Ming, a trade expert with the Ministry of Commerce's International Market Research Institute, said that,as the US has shut flights to China, many Chinese companies cannot purchase a lot of US goods even if they want to. 

"This is not proof to jump to the conclusion that implementation of the trade deal will fail, as the trade deal has just been signed and the two countries still have a lot of time to carry out the clauses," Bai told the Global Times.