China, New Zealand agree to advance negotiations on services trade negative list: spokesman

China and New Zealand have agreed to promote negotiations on services trade negative list, said He Yadong, spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce at a press conference on Thursday.

He said China and New Zealand had an in-depth exchange of views on deepening bilateral economic and trade relations, and strengthening regional and multilateral cooperation during the 34th Joint Trade and Economic Commission Meeting held recently in Beijing.

"Both sides have agreed to jointly advance the negotiations on the negative list for services trade under the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, strengthen communication and coordination within regional and multilateral frameworks such as APEC and the WTO, and continue to support the rules-based multilateral trading system," said He.

China, New Zealand agree to advance negotiations on services trade negative list: spokesman

The U.S. federal government's customs tariff refunds reached 21.972 billion U.S. dollars in May, according to monthly fiscal data released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Wednesday.

The federal government's total customs tariff revenue for May was 21.93 billion dollars, meaning that after deducting tariff refunds, the net tariff revenue for the month was negative 42 million dollars.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Feb 20 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to impose sweeping tariffs.

On March 4, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must not levy tariffs during customs clearance based on the IEEPA.

CBP launched the relevant refund process on April 20, with the first batch of refunds issued around May 11.

US refunds nearly 22 billion dollars in tariffs in May