The White House stalls tariff payments for pandemic-battered firms while keeping taxes against China unchanged

• The US will defer tariff payments for companies battered by the coronavirus and its severe economic toll, the Treasury Department and Customs and Border Protection announced Sunday.
• Importers facing "significant financial hardship" from the outbreak will have a 90-day delay option for all fees, duties, and taxes, a statement said.
• The temporary policy doesn't apply to anti-dumping or countervailing tariffs, leaving taxes intact for goods related to President Donald Trump's various trade conflicts.
• Items left out from the Sunday order include various Chinese imports, solar panels, steel, and aluminum.
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The US will defer tariff payments for companies burdened with "significant financial hardship" from the coronavirus pandemic, but not those embroiled in various trade conflicts.

Importers will have a 90-day delay option for the fees, according to the Treasury Department and Customs and Border Protection. The order is meant to provide relief for firms undergoing widespread layoffs and severe supply chain disruptions.

The executive order brings "much-needed relief to affected businesses," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. "This will protect American jobs and help these businesses get through this time."

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The temporary measure does not apply to anti-dumping or countervailing tariffs, leaving retaliatory duties on several goods related to President Donald Trump's trade wars. Several Chinese imports, steel, solar panels, and aluminum will be taxed on the same schedule.

The coronavirus' economic fallout quickly overshadowed progress in de-escalating the Trump administration's prolonged trade dispute with China. A "phase one" agreement was signed on January 15, bolstering intellectual property security and ordering China to buy an additional $200 billion of US goods over two years. The global health crisis has since placed the trade war on the back-burner as both economic superpowers look to curb the spread of COVID-19 and reopen their economies.

The tariff relief also arrives as the White House continues to blame the coronavirus pandemic on China and a lack of transparency around the country's initial outbreak. The president recently warned of retaliatory measures if China helped spread the disease.

"It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn't, and the whole world is suffering because of it," Trump said at a coronavirus task force briefing on Saturday. "If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences."

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