NEWS ALERT - CHINA ANNOUNCES JULY 1 CUTS TO EXPORT REBATES

BEIJING, June 19 (Reuters & Sources) - China will remove or reduce tax rebates on more than 2,000 exported products, including some steel and metals exports, as well as some textiles, shoes and other manufactured products, to help reduce its trade surplus, the Finance Ministry said today.

The changes will take effect from July 1, it said.

Sources said export rebates will be cut for rubber, plastics and related products to 5 percent, although this has not yet been confirmed. 

"The export tax rebate policy adjustment is an important part of a series of measures to curb export growth and to mitigate the excessive trade surplus problem," the announcement said.

There will be no grace period for most products, except ships and other construction equipment, since previous grace periods on export policy changes resulted in many cases of fraudulent export contracts, it said.

The Finance Ministry did not immediately give exact new rebate levels for the exports.