China's State Council issues an updated tariff schedule every year, and the 2026 version focuses squarely on high-end technology and the green transition — categories far removed from tires, but the plan is worth reading anyway, because it signals where Beijing is steering trade policy and where it isn't.
What actually changed
The 2026 plan adjusts import and export tariffs across a range of goods and adds new tariff lines to the schedule, while explicitly upholding China's existing free-trade-agreement commitments. For categories outside the plan's priority list — including tires and most industrial goods — the practical effect is stability rather than disruption: existing FTA rates hold, and the changes are concentrated where the government wants to channel capital.
The US side of the ledger looks different
On the other side of the trade relationship, a mid-2026 truce left in place a combined 30% tariff rate on many Chinese goods while pausing higher increases, and a public comment period on further relief for up to $30 billion in Chinese imports runs through July 2026. That's an active, moving target — unlike China's own schedule, which resets on a predictable annual cycle.
What it means for a distributor's planning
Reading a tariff plan for line-item changes matters less than reading it for direction: this year's update confirms China isn't targeting broad-based industrial exports for new duties, while signaling that any relief on the US side is being negotiated sector by sector, not granted across the board. A distributor's landed-cost model should reflect that asymmetry — stable on origin-side duties, uncertain on destination-side ones.
The safest move for 2026 is quoting against the current destination-market rate with a clear note on how it could shift, rather than assuming this year's number is next year's number.