On 30 September 2026, South China Morning Post reported that Beijing and Washington plan to waive additional duties on about US$30 billion of each other’s goods under the new US-China Board of Trade framework, potentially narrowing Southeast Asia’s tariff advantage for some products that Chinese manufacturers had shifted abroad to dodge higher US duties on China-origin goods.
Citing China’s Ministry of Commerce, SCMP said more than 90% of Chinese products on the US$30 billion list—mostly everyday consumer items such as toys and household goods—would return to most-favoured-nation tariff treatment with all additional duties waived. A reciprocal US$30 billion list covers US exports to China. A White House statement did not spell out exact cut levels, but if changes match Beijing’s outline, US official data imply duties on most of those products would fall below 10%, with some categories at zero.
The regional contrast matters for sourcing maps. Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, which attracted Chinese investment in low-end consumer goods manufacturing over the past decade, continue to face additional US tariffs of between 10% and 12.5%. Washington imposed those duties on 60 trading partners in July after a Section 301 investigation into alleged forced labour. For listed China-origin consumer SKUs, the China–SEA duty gap could flip once implementation is complete; for goods outside the lists, the incentive to keep plus-one capacity remains.