News in brief
Christmas comes early as China cuts sausage tariff
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) hailed the early Christmas present from the Chinese, who lowered their annual tariffs on a range of agriculture products, including two types of sausages.
Sausage exports from the World Trade Organization (WTO) members with the most-favoured-nation status will see customs duty on sausages fall from 15% to 8%.
The tax cut will benefit sausages made with natural and synthetic casings.
While the USDA welcomed the news, its announcement was somewhat bizarre, as the US is not allowed to sell sausages to China.
“The United States is currently unable to export sausages containing meat due to China’s facility registration requirements,” USDA said.
Still, other countries cleared to sell sausage to China, such as Denmark which signed an historic agreement to export millions of heat-treated sausages to the country in May, should benefit.
