Beijing releases its first batch of American products that will be exempt from higher tariffs. The list, 16 products long, will not face any of the countermeasures of US Section 301. This aims to protect Chinese businesses and consumers from collateral damage in the ongoing US-China trade war. CGTN reporter Wang Mengzhen has the details.

Effective for one year starting Tuesday, 16 types of US products will be exempt from additional Chinese tariffs.

At the same time, 12 of them will also see refunds on tariffs already paid by businesses.

This first batch of items, according to a statement from the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Wednesday, includes American raw materials that are crucial to companies' business activities.

Alfalfa, manufacturing lubricants, and crude drugs for cancer treatment are among the exemptions.

CHEN HUAISHENG CHINA CHAMBER OF INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE "Criteria for those on the exclusion list include products that are hard to find substitutes for. The imposition of additional duties could severely harm the applying companies and the related industries."

PROFESSOR TIAN ZHIHONG CHINA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY "Five of the sixteen items on the list are agricultural products. This time, we mainly targeted livestock breeding and cultivation industries, which have seen an increasing demand among Chinese consumers. These chosen products have heavily relied on American imports as the single source. But the majority of our agricultural products can easily be substituted elsewhere."

Today's announcement comes just three months after most companies applied for the exclusion.

That's why experts say the lists are highly efficient. On the other hand, Washington already put in place eight tariff exclusion lists to exempt certain Chinese imports from additional tariffs since December last year.

WANG MENGZHEN BEIJING "As for why the exemption period is one year, experts say that represents Chinese authorities' hope for some tangible result on the China-US trade talks and the open attitudes towards a possible trade deal as well."

Work is already underway on a second batch of lists.

Companies have until mid October to submit their proposed items for evaluation before another announcement. WMZ, CGTN, BEIJING.