China will remain subject to the US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, despite the White House announcing this week that the US would hold off on implementing a series of tariffs against the country, said a report.

The steel and aluminium tariffs against China will remain in force, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was quoted as saying by an S&P Global Platts report.

He added that those were not part of the discussions, Mnuchin told the Senate Appropriations Financial Services Sub-committee.

Mnuchin noted that the Trump administration was holding off on plans to impose Section 301 tariffs of $150 billion on Chinese goods as the two countries had agreed on a framework for reducing the US trade deficit and to address intellectual property and technology theft issues, the report said.

The US official pointed out that the tariffs placed on hold are separate from the 25 per cent tariff on steel imports and 10 per cent tariff on aluminium imports the US began implementing March 23, as a result of Section 232 investigations into the effect of these imports on national security.