WASHINGTON—The Trump administration abruptly supplied China—and U.S. shoppers—a reprieve from sweeping tariffs that have been poised to hit on Sept. 1, sending shares sharply increased and elevating hopes for reviving talks on a commerce deal.

Commerce talks appeared in jeopardy after the Trump administration threatened on Aug. 1 to increase tariffs of 10% to $300 billion in Chinese language imports not at the moment taxed, together with many shopper items. They’d come on high of 25% tariffs imposed on $250 billion in imports from China.

The workplace of the U.S. Commerce Consultant on Tuesday mentioned it will as a substitute delay the brand new tariffs on many main classes of things, together with smartphones, laptop computer computer systems and toys, till Dec. 15.

The USTR mentioned some merchandise could be faraway from the tariff lists fully, based mostly on well being, security, national-security and different elements. The record of excluded objects consists of among the biggest-ticket objects dealing with tariffs. Cellphones and laptops alone characterize about $80 billion of commerce.

The motion got here after U.S. Commerce Consultant

Robert Lighthizer

and Treasury Secretary

Steven Mnuchin

participated in a name on Tuesday with Chinese language Vice Premier Liu He relating to the commerce talks, which President Trump known as a “superb name.”

China “would love to make a deal,” Mr. Trump advised reporters in Morristown, N.J.

Through the name between commerce negotiators on Tuesday, “China “lodged solemn representations” relating to Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs due to enter impact on Sept. 1, the Chinese language Commerce Ministry mentioned.

The ministry mentioned the U.S. had initiated the decision, and that the 2 sides agreed to talk once more by telephone in two weeks. It made no point out of plans for face-to-face talks, which had been scheduled to happen in Washington in September.

In a tweet, Mr. Trump once more touted the opportunity of Chinese language purchases of agriculture. Since Mr. Trump threatened to maneuver ahead with the tariffs on Sept. 1, China introduced it will halt purchases of many U.S. agricultural items, a transfer that had deepened the woes of the Farm Belt.

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“I feel it’s excellent news that the administration has delayed the choice to maneuver ahead with elevating tariffs,” mentioned

Myron Sensible,

the pinnacle of worldwide affairs on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It provides each side extra respiratory room…as they give the impression of being to get again on observe.”

The inventory market soared on the information of one more potential thaw within the tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The Dow Jones Industrial Common was up about 385 factors, or 1.5%, on Tuesday afternoon.

Apple
Inc.

surged about 4.2% on the information that smartphones, together with its iPhone, could be spared till no less than December from the proposed 10% tariffs. The reprieve is the second break the Trump administration has granted Apple, whose smartwatches and wi-fi earbuds have been excluded from deliberate tariffs final yr.

Some Chinese language producers are dodging U.S. tariffs by rerouting items to Vietnam and different international locations. Right here’s a take a look at why transshipment is on the rise, and the way U.S. customs officers are struggling to stamp out the observe. Video and Photograph composite: Crystal Tai

Hopes that China may resume shopping for U.S. crops and meat boosted shares of agricultural merchants like

Archer Daniels Midland
Co.

and

Bunge
Ltd.

, which have blamed the tariff battle for distorting worldwide flows of meals and pressuring crop costs. Shares of ethanol makers like

Inexperienced Plains
Inc.,

which had banked closely on Chinese language demand for the corn-based gasoline additive, additionally acquired a lift.

Soybean futures jumped 1.1% on the Chicago Board of Commerce.

The delay in tariffs buys a reprieve for negotiators. Talks between the U.S. and Chinese language negotiating groups in Shanghai in July ended with no breakthrough, and a Chinese language delegation was planning to go to Washington in September, shortly after the tariffs have been scheduled to be imposed.

However with out some kind of reprieve, it could have been troublesome for China to return to the talks, and any Trump administration hopes of large-scale agricultural purchases to assist the farm economic system may have been nixed.

The delay can be a reprieve for U.S. shoppers, who would have seen the tariffs kick into impact for items arriving for the vacation procuring season.

“The tariffs would have hit the sorts of merchandise—shopper, Christmas toys, issues like that—which might have actually been felt by the American shopper heading into the vacation season,” mentioned Mr. Sensible of the Chamber of Commerce.

Lastly, the delay can be a reprieve for the inventory market, which had fallen sharply after the most recent spherical of talks appeared to make no progress. The administration has repeatedly softened its commerce rhetoric when the market has weakened. The Dow Jones Industrial Common had fallen by greater than 1000 factors after the most recent spherical of talks in Shanghai yielded no breakthrough.

The transfer is the most recent seesawing within the talks between Washington and Beijing. The tariffs in query—on roughly $300 billion in items—have been first introduced in Might following a breakdown in U.S.-China talks. They’d have come atop the roughly $250 billion in items from China already dealing with tariffs, and would end in practically each merchandise imported from China dealing with an obligation.

Then, Mr. Trump and China’s President

Xi Jinping

reached a truce at a summit in Osaka, Japan, in late June and these tariffs have been positioned on maintain.

However by late July, the Trump administration blamed China for not transferring rapidly sufficient to buy agricultural items, a transfer that China mentioned it hadn’t agreed to within the first place. It was after these talks in late July that the Trump administration mentioned it will impose this spherical of tariffs on Sept. 1.

Now a considerable a part of these tariffs is delayed.

The USTR additionally mentioned that it will have an exclusion course of for the latest spherical of tariffs, that means that particular person corporations can have the power to keep away from the duties in the event that they efficiently make the case that their enterprise could be unduly harmed.

—Jacob Bunge, Tripp Mickle and Alex Leary
contributed to this text.

Write to Josh Zumbrun at Josh.Zumbrun@wsj.com

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