The Chinese government is considering a 50% cut to the import duty on passenger vehicles — from Bloomberg:
The State Council, or China’s cabinet, is weighing plans to reduce the 25 percent levy — which has been in place for more than a decade — to 10 percent or 15 percent, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private. An announcement of a decision could be made as early as next month, the people said.
China imported 1.22 million vehicles last year, or about 4.2 percent of the country’s total sales of about 28.9 million automobiles.
Lexus is one of the only luxury automotive manufacturers that does not partner with a Chinese manufacturer to produce vehicles locally, so this tariff reduction would benefit brand sales greatly — here’s a chart outlining the current import levels:
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