US-China tariff relief: what it means if you import from China

Over the weekend the US and China agreed to reduce tariffs on around $60bn of trade between them. If you import consumer goods from China, this is worth ten minutes of your attention, and it is worth understanding precisely, because most of the coverage is written for shoppers, not for the person who actually has to rebuild a landed cost.

Here is what was agreed, what is on the list, and what to do about it.

What actually happened

The two governments agreed a framework the White House is calling "30-for-30": each country recommends around $30bn of trade in "non-sensitive" goods for more favourable tariff treatment, totalling roughly $60bn between them (Office of the US Trade Representative statement, 28 September 2026; Reuters). It came out of the second Trump-Xi summit of the year, held in Washington the previous week, and it sits alongside a two-month extension of the wider trade truce through 10 January (Reuters, citing China's commerce ministry).

The number that matters for you is not the $60bn. It is the shape of the two lists. The US list of Chinese imports covers 77 tariff categories (CNN; NBC News). That is the list your products would need to be on.

What is on the US list

The categories reported so far are squarely in consumer-goods territory, which is why this is relevant to DTC brands rather than just to commodity importers. As reported, the US list includes:

• Toys, and inflatable balls

• Children's car seats

• Small appliances, with coffee makers and toasters named specifically

• Tableware and kitchen accessories

• Curtains, blankets and bed linens

• Electric shavers

• Fireworks, artificial flowers, Christmas tree lamps and other holiday decorations

(Sources: Reuters; CNN; Bloomberg; NBC News, 28 September 2026.)

So the brands most likely to be affected are the obvious ones: homeware and kitchenware, toys and children's products, small domestic appliances, seasonal and holiday product brands, and general household goods. If your catalogue sits in home, kitchen, family, toy or seasonal, this is a list to check line by line.

The Chinese list, for completeness, runs the other way: 1,619 US product categories including corn, wheat, frozen meat, seafood, cosmetics and medical devices (CNN). That is relevant if you export to China, less so if you are a US-selling DTC brand importing from it.

The caveat that most coverage buries

This is the part to be careful about, and it is where a headline becomes a mistake if you act on it too fast.

$60bn of tariffs have not disappeared. What has happened is that around $60bn of trade has been recommended for more favourable treatment, subject to each country's own domestic processes. It is a framework and a set of recommendations, not a duty rate that changed on your next shipment. The US trade representative's own language is "recommended for more favorable tariff treatment," not "removed" (USTR statement, 28 September 2026).

Two things follow from that. First, the relief has to be implemented before it is real, and the timing of that is not yet clear. Second, "more favourable treatment" is not the same as "zero." A category on the list may see a reduced rate, not the removal of every tariff that has been layered on over the past few years. Until the specific rate change for your specific product is published and in effect, nothing has changed on your cost sheet.

There is also a stability point worth holding onto. The truce extension runs to 10 January. This is a relationship that has moved back and forth repeatedly, and a framework agreed at a summit can be re-cut at the next one. Treat this as a real but provisional improvement, not a permanent new baseline to restructure your sourcing around.

What to actually do, in order

A tariff change is not a headline for your supply chain. It is a cost input, and the discipline is the same as it always is: work from your own numbers, not the news.

1. Pull your HTS codes. You cannot check a list against "toys" or "homeware." You check it against the specific Harmonized Tariff Schedule code for each product you import. If you do not have your HTS codes to hand, your customs broker or freight forwarder does, and this is the moment to get them into a spreadsheet. This is also a good time to confirm your codes are actually correct, misclassification is common, and it cuts both ways: it can mean you are overpaying now, or that you are on the list and did not realise.

2. Check your codes against the published list. Match your HTS codes against the official USTR list once it is published in full, not against a press summary. The news names categories; the list names codes. A category being "on the list" in a headline does not mean your exact product is, and only the code-level match tells you. Your broker can do this against the Federal Register notice when it lands.

3. Rebuild your landed cost before you change anything. This is the step brands skip, and it is the one that matters. If a rate does change for one of your products, do not touch your pricing or your sourcing until you have rebuilt the full landed cost per unit with the new duty in it: ex-works cost, freight, duty, any remaining tariffs, and fulfilment. A duty reduction on one input does not automatically make a product cheaper to land if freight or another line has moved. Know the real new number before you make a commercial decision off it.

The order matters. Codes, then the list, then landed cost, then, only then, any decision about price or supplier. Working the other way round, seeing a headline and adjusting pricing or moving sourcing on the strength of it, is how a provisional trade announcement turns into a real operational mistake.

The bigger point

If this agreement holds and your products are on the list, it is genuinely good news: a category that has been carrying elevated duty getting relief flows straight to your landed cost and, on a thin DTC margin, straight to your bottom line. That is worth having.

But the reason to be precise about it is the same reason tariffs have been painful for the last two years. They are not a strategic story that you respond to with a big move. They are a cost input that changes, sometimes in your favour and sometimes not, and the brands that handle them well are the ones that treat every change, up or down, as a prompt to rebuild the number rather than to react to the headline. The de minimis change was a cost input. The tariffs that followed were a cost input. This relief is a cost input. The discipline does not change with the direction.

If you want a second pair of eyes on your HTS classifications, your landed cost, or whether this agreement actually helps your specific products once it is implemented, see how we work.

This piece reflects reporting as of 28 September 2026 on an agreement that is still being implemented. Confirm the specifics against the official USTR list and your customs broker before acting on anything here.