China said on Tuesday that it will further cut import tariffs on more than 100 categories of products beginning January 1, 2006, including vegetable oil, raw chemical materials, automobiles and parts.

Approved by the State Council, or China's cabinet, the move was taken to honor China's tariff reduction commitment upon its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said in a statement.

Since China has fulfilled most of its tariff reduction obligations, the latest plan will not have a big impact on China's overall tariff level, according to the statement.

China's overall level of import tariffs will remain at 9.9 percent in 2006, compared with 10.4 percent in 2004.

The average import tariff will be 15.2 percent for farm produce and 9.0 percent for industrial goods, it said.

As of 2006, China will continue its tariff and quota management of wheat, corn and five other farm produce items and three categories of chemical fertilizers, and abolish tariffs and quota management of soybean oil, palm oil and rapeseed oil.

China will also stop collecting export tariffs on textile goods, and impose provisional tariff rates on over 60 categories of exports as of January 1, 2006, according to the statement.

China will impose more preferential import tariffs on products from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as of 2006 according to the China-ASEAN free trade area agreement.

Similar preferential import tariffs will also be available for products from Pakistan and Hong Kong and Macao according to related arrangements.

China will also impose even lower tariffs on products originating from about 30 least developing countries, such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Bangladesh and Sudan.

The 15 kinds of fresh fruit produced in Taiwan will continue to enjoy zero tariff rates, said the statement.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2005)