Photo: Xinhua

China's additional measures to reduce duties on more than 850 items will better serve domestic consumers along with consumption upgrading, while helping increase imports of advanced technologies needed for the country's industrial transformation and upgrading, experts said Monday.

The comment came after the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced on the same day that more than 850 items - from frozen pork to high technology products - will be subjected to temporary import tariff rates that are lower than most favored nation rates.

"This move shows China is going a step further than international common rules," Li Yong, deputy chair of the expert committee of the China Association of International Trade, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, told the Global Times on Monday.

By doing so, China will provide new economic opportunities for trade partners, while better serving domestic consumers and promoting technology development by reducing costs, Li said.

While China constantly promotes independent innovation, it still needs imports of high technologies amid globalization, which will help promote the country's industrial structure adjustment and upgrading, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times.

The commission also placed emphasis on lower duties on imports of advanced technologies, equipment and components, including integrated circuit storage. It also said it would reduce the most favorable nation rates for 176 information technology products, while adjusting the temporary import tariff rates of some information technology products, starting from July 1, 2020.

Liu Kun, a Beijing-based semiconductor industry analyst, told the Global Times on Monday that lowering duties of information technology products will help improve the current supply shortage situation and alleviate pressure brought by US threats to end chip supplies to China.

"The China-US trade tensions have rung a warning bell for domestic companies. They are now seeking chip alternatives to the US," Liu said, noting that US chips will gradually be replaced in the Chinese market whether duties are lowered or not.