Timeline of US-China Tea Tariffs
2025 NOVEMBER 14
The White House announced a modification to reciprocal tariffs for certain agricultural products that are not meaningfully and significantly produced in the U.S. The announcement reduced the tariffs on Chinese teas down to 17.5%
2025 NOVEMBER 4
After successful US-China talks on 30 OCTOBER 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order that reduced tariffs on Chinese teas that cleared customs after 10 NOVEMBER 2025. This lowers the total tariff on Chinese tea imports to 27.5%
2025 MAY 14
Negotiations between US and China led to an agreement that lowered tea tariffs to 37.5%. These duties are under Harmonized Tariff Codes 9903.88.15, 9903.01.24, and 9903.01.25
2025 APRIL 02
Additional tariffs are added to all Chinese imports, bringing the total tariff on Chinese tea imports to 61.5%. This applies to China exports leaving after 09 April 2025 according to the 07 Apr Federal Register.
2025 MARCH 04
An additional 10% tariff was added to the import of Chinese teas, bringing the total tariff to 27.5%. The details were described in the 06 Mar Federal Register.
2025 FEBRUARY 05
An amendment of the President’s February 1, 2025 Executive order ‘‘Amendment to Duties Addressing the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People’s Republic of China” is submitted and recorded in the 12 Feb 2025 Federal Register. This raised the tariff on Chinese teas into the US from 7.5% to 17.5%
2020 FEBRUARY 14
Reduced tariff rates go into effect, lowering the tariff on Chinese tea from 15% to 7.5% as described in the 22 Jan 2020 Federal Register.
2019 DECEMBER 15
15% tariff rate that was proposed on/about 30 August 2019 are confirmed to go into effect as described in the 18 Dec 2019 Federal Register.
2019 AUGUST 30
Tariff rates on select lists of Chinese goods (including Chinese teas) are increased from 10% to 15%, with an effective date of 1 September 2019 as described in the 30 Aug 2019 Federal Register.
2019 AUGUST 20
After 7 days of open comment and testimony from the public held by the US International Trade Commission, a proposed tariff of 10% was announced for goods in List 4A (including tea). The proposed tariffs were set to go into effect on 1 September 2019 as described in the 20 Aug 2019 Federal Register.
2019 JUNE 17
The Office of the US Trade Representative held a public hearing on the proposed modification of Section 301 related to China technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. The hearings were held to invite comment on a proposed 25% tariff on Chinse goods as described in the 17 May 2019 Federal Register. A representative of Firsd Tea provided testimony in opposition of tariffs on tea at the hearing.
[…] YTD total imports from CHINA are UP 74.3% over 2024. This represents at least a 7-year high, and can be attributed (at least in part) to efforts to import more Chinese teas before tariffs came into effect. […]