State Council Announcement! Tariff Adjustment for Polylactic Acid (PLA) Imports in 2024

On December 21, 2023, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council released the "2024 Tariff Adjustment Plan," which involves adjustments to the import and export tariffs for certain goods. Notably, Polylactic Acid (PLA), also known as polylactide or polyactide, was not included in the provisional tariff rate table for imported goods. This implies the conclusion of the provisional tariff rate (3%), which has been applied to PLA for over a decade, below the Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) tariff rate, and a return to the MFN tariff rate of 6.5%.

The tariff adjustment plan will be effective from January 1, 2024. If there are no further adjustments, according to agreements such as the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), PLA imports from Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan will continue to enjoy a duty-free status, unaffected by the tariff adjustment. PLA imports from the United States will be subject to the MFN tariff rate, while the impact on PLA imports from other countries and regions to China is expected to be minimal due to the limited quantities.

The tariff adjustment will primarily impact the import of PLA from the United States. According to customs data, from January to November 2023, China imported a total of 17,299 tons of PLA from the United States, accounting for 59.4% of the total imports. The average monthly import volume was 1,572.7 tons, more than twice the average monthly import volume of 758 tons in 2022. The average price for imported US PLA in 2023 was approximately $2,621 per ton, compared to around $3,198 per ton in 2022.

Based on the average price of $2,621 per ton in 2023, this tariff adjustment is expected to increase the cost of importing PLA from the United States by approximately $104 per ton.

来源：  可降解可循环中心