Washington and Beijing have each named the goods they want to spare. The legal step that would actually lower duties is still to come.
The United States and China have agreed on what to cut. They have not yet cut it.
Under a new "U.S.-China Board of Trade" framework, each government has published a list of the other side's products it recommends for reduced tariff treatment, covering roughly $30 billion of goods apiece, or about $60 billion combined. The White House release dated describes the lists as products "Recommended for Reduced Tariff Treatment," and that wording carries the story. No new duty rate has been set on the American side. That requires a separate implementing notice from the U.S. Trade Representative, and no date has been given for it.
Much of the week's market commentary has treated the "30-for-30" arrangement as a finished tariff cut. On the government's own terms it is a menu.
Two very different lists
The asymmetry between the two sides is striking. The American list runs to 77 Harmonized Tariff Schedule lines, concentrated in Chinese toys, electrical goods and assorted consumer products. China's list covers 1,619 lines of U.S. agricultural goods, food, timber, coal and medical equipment. That is roughly 21 Chinese tariff lines for every American one, even though the dollar value on each side is similar. Washington is offering relief on a handful of large import categories; Beijing is spreading its relief across a long tail of smaller ones.
What both lists leave out matters as much as what they include. Semiconductors, electric vehicles and batteries are absent from both. Soybeans, the most politically sensitive U.S. farm export, are missing from China's list and handled instead through a separate purchase pledge of 25 million metric tons a year through 2028.
What the framework does and does not touch
The broader tariff architecture stays in place. The 30% and 10% baseline rates set under the May 2025 Geneva truce remain, as does the effective U.S. tariff of about 47% on Chinese goods that followed the October 2025 Busan summit, when the fentanyl-related levy was halved to 10% from 20%. The two sides have also extended their trade truce to .
The Board of Trade itself dates to a public-comment notice. Its terms of reference suggest the product lists are unlikely to be revised more than once a year, which makes the initial selection unusually sticky.
The debate for investors
The optimistic reading holds that a formal process, a published list and a dated truce extension together amount to a credible commitment, and that markets are right to price de-escalation now. The skeptical reading notes that the relief is recommendation-only, annually adjustable at best, and fenced away from every sector where the two economies truly compete.
Chinese equities did not treat the summit as a breakthrough. The CSI 300 fell more than 2% to a one-year low on the Monday after the leaders met.
What to watch
The single observable that separates the two readings is the implementing notice. Until a U.S. tariff schedule is published, importers of Chinese toys and electrical goods have a recommendation, not a rate. The next hard deadline is the truce expiry.