The Chinese mainland will exempt import tariffs on 15 kinds of fruits from Taiwan as of Aug. 1, announced a spokesman with the Ministry of Commerce Thursday in Beijing.

As Taiwan entered its fruit season, the mainland has made preparations for Taiwan farmers to sell their fruits on the mainland, said the spokesman.

The 15 fruits to enjoy free tariffs are pineapples, cherimoyas, pawpaws, carambolas, mangos, guavas, wax-apples, pinangs, grapefruits, jujubes, coconuts, loquats, plums, peaches, and persimmons.

Chinese mainland's Customs will make public the procedure of importing the 15 fruits later, and the measures will be taken by Customs and quality supervision departments to facilitate the imports, said the spokesman.

Taiwan's Kuomingtang Chairman Lien Chan and the People First Party leader James Soong visited the Chinese mainland earlier this year and respectively held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The mainland then decided to increase the number of fruit types that could be exported from the island to the mainland from 12 to 18 types and 15 of them would be free of tax.

Source: Xinhua