Restoration of MFN tariff on solid waste imports to have little impact on aluminium industry

SHANGHAI, Jan 4 (SMM) — The Office of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council issued an announcement to make appropriate adjustments to the provisional import tax rate implemented in 2020. In order to implement the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes", starting from January 1, 2021, the provisional tax rate for the import of solid wastes such as shredded metal scrap will be cancelled, and the most-favored-nation (MFN) tax rate will be restored.

According to the "Import and Export Tariffs of the People's Republic of China (2021)", the order of application of tax rates is as follows:

When the MNF tax rate is lower than or equal to the agreed tax rate, if the agreement has provisions, it shall be implemented in accordance with the relevant agreement, but if the agreement has no provisions, the lower tax rate of the two shall apply. If imported goods that are applicable to the MFN tax rate have provisional tax rate, the provisional tax rate shall be applied; if imported goods that are applicable to the agreed tax rate and preferential tax rate have provisional tax rate, the lower tax rate of the three shall be applied; if imported goods are applicable to general tax rate, the provisional tax rate shall not apply. 

Previously, except for US shredded aluminium scrap, whose agreed tax rate increased to 50%, the provisional tariffs and MFN tariff on shredded aluminium scrap from other countries were zero and 1.5% respectively, and zero tariff was applied. Under the new tariff, the provisional tariff on traditional shredded aluminium scrap has been cancelled, and the MFN tariff of 1.5% has been restored. However, for the newly added raw material "recycled casting aluminium alloy raw materials", the MFN import tariff is tentatively set at zero. It should be noted that the import of other shredded aluminium scrap under the tariff code 7602.0000 will be banned from January 1, 2021, thus the tariff adjustment from 0 to 1.5% will have no actual impact. The new tariff code still implements the MFN tariff that is tentatively set at zero. Therefore, SMM believes that the restoration of MFN tariffs on solid waste imports will have no actual impact on the aluminium industry. Market still needs to pay attention to the implementation of imports of renewable casting aluminium alloy raw materials.

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