In the context of the current dual strategic goals of China''s promotion of high-quality economic development and active expansion of imports, the impact of the intermediate import tariff reduction on the high-quality development of exports are studied from the industry level. Through measuring the degree of intermediate import tariff and export quality of China''s 31 industrial sectors from 2001 to 2017, the panel data is constructed to conduct empirical analysis, the results show that the intermediate tariff reduction can significantly promote export quality upgrades, this conclusion is still stable after spatial correlation and endogeneity tests; however, the sub-sample regression results show that this effect is not obvious in low import-intensive industries, and the external driving force for the upgrading of export quality is foreign direct investment. China should rely on the construction of the Hainan free trade port to accelerate the intermediate import liberalization, pay attention to the risk of import interruption, fully support enterprises'' independent R&D and innovation, attract high-quality foreign direct investment, and ultimately help exports achieve high-quality development.