As Trump threatens more tariff rises, China uses low duties to secure resources
China’s average effective tariff rate estimated to be as low as 1.3 per cent in 2025, helping it secure raw materials and build soft power
As US President Donald Trump’s tariff increases have roiled global markets and strained America’s alliances in recent months, China has been pursuing the opposite strategy: keeping import duties low and pledging further cuts as a way to secure strategic resources and build ties across the developing world.
China’s average effective tariff rate – calculated by dividing total duties raised by the value of imports – has fallen steadily over the past decade and came to just 1.3 per cent in 2025, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Meanwhile, the US’ effective tariff rate soared to 11.2 per cent last year – the highest average level since 1943 – according to a January report by the Tax Foundation, a US-based research organisation.
For China, applying low or no tariffs has helped ensure that its importers can find eager overseas suppliers of industrial raw materials and fuel, as neither side is obliged to pay duties, according to Xu Tianchen, a senior economist at the EIU.
“China applies low or zero tariff rates to commodities, which account for the lion’s share of its imports,” Xu said, citing crude oil, natural gas and iron ore as three key inputs. “The effective tariff rate … is low and has been falling.”
China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, told Xinhua on Thursday that China was moving to implement zero-tariff measures on all imports from African countries with which Beijing had diplomatic relations. Beijing has already eliminated tariffs on goods from 43 countries classified as the world’s least developed.
Beijing will also “actively expand” imports from Africa via “targeted procurement” and exhibitions such as the annual China International Import Expo in Shanghai, according to Wang, helping all parties “better meet the needs of industrial development and people’s pursuit of a better life”.
China has tapped much of the world – from Africa through Asia to South America – for the resources it needs to maintain its status as what the Centre for Economic Policy Research think tank has called the world’s sole manufacturing “superpower”.
Algeria supplies refined and crude petroleum, while copper comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some of the coal that powers Chinese factories is shipped from developing countries including Indonesia and Mongolia.
“At this point, the most important thing is to make China look better relative to the US,” said Chen Zhiwu, chair professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong.
Developing nations are not obliged to match China’s low or zero tariff rules, according to Chen. But they often keep tariffs low anyway because they need to import clothes, furniture, electronics and other goods from China and have little “native industry” to protect, he said.