Foreign brands cut prices in China as VAT rates go down

SHANGHAI - World famous consumer brands including Apple, Louis Vuitton and Gucci have announced their decisions to cut their suggested retail prices to give the gains from China's value-added tax (VAT) cut to consumers.

China on Monday started to slash VAT in multiple industries.

Apple's online store in China lowered the price of iPhone XS and iPhone XS MAX by 500 yuan ($74.6), while that of iPhone XR dropped 300 yuan. Its newly launched iPad Air, iPad mini and AirPods are also on the price-cut list.

Luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Gucci have also announced a drop of 3 percent for their whole product lineup.

Car manufacturers including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Lincoln and Volvo have already cut the suggested retail prices of cars as much as 80,000 yuan over the past weeks after China announced VAT rate cut.

China has set out a plan for the large-scale tax cut, including lowering the VAT rate in manufacturing and other industries from 16 to 13 percent and that in transportation, construction and other industries from 10 to 9 percent.