By Gaurav Sharma

Beijing, Jun 26 (IANS): On the brink of a trade war with the US, China on Tuesday decided to drop import tariffs on soybean from five countries including India.

China's Cabinet, the State Council, announced that import duty on from India, South Korea, Bangladesh, Laos and Sri Lanka would be slashed from the current 3 per cent to zero.

It also said tariffs on chemicals, agricultural products, medical supplies, clothing, steel and aluminium products from these countries would also be cut.

Earlier in April, India had offered to export soybean and other agriculture products to China, which is locked in an ugly trade spat with the US.

The US has decided to slap import tariffs worth billions of dollars on Chinese goods while China has vowed to respond in kind when the first tranche of levies come into effect from July 6.

China is the world's biggest buyer of soybean, which makes about around two-thirds of America's agricultural export to China.

The US accuses China of pressuring American companies of transferring their technologies to Chinese companies, a charge denied by Beijing.

Meanwhile, India is eyeing to gain access to Chinese market in sectors like pharmaceuticals and others.

At the 5th India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue in Beijing in April, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajeev Kumar said Beijing and New Delhi were unruffled by the "protectionist noises" and could well be the important anchor for the world economy.

"We have noticed that you import a lot of agricultural products probably to the tune of $20 billion or more," Kumar said.

"And I was noticing that there were some tariffs that were issued on farmers from Iowa and Ohio etc. Maybe India can substitute for something like soybeans and sugar if we could have access to those exports with all the due quality considerations for that you might have on our farmers. That might be very useful," Kumar had said, referring to the US-China trade war.