Effective Dec. 1, 2017, China is unilaterally lowering its cheese tariffs from 12 percent to 8 percent. The reduction is part of a broader package of tariff cuts on food and consumer goods China announced last week to bolster consumer choice. Cheese was included among those products.
Over the last decade, China’s cheese imports soared more than seven-fold to nearly 100,000 metric tons. Already a top-10 cheese buyer, it is on pace to become the largest cheese importer in the world in the coming years.