U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
BEIJING – China is emphasizing its willingness to negotiate as higher tariffs on exports to the United States could soon become a reality.
US President Donald Trump said this week that he may increase tariffs on Chinese goods by 10% from February 1. The White House also announced Monday plans to investigate China on actions damaging US trade.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has always maintained communication with “relevant” US authorities on economics and trade, ministry spokesman He Yadong said in response on Thursday.
“The Chinese side hopes that both sides, under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, will strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and promote the stable and healthy development of China’s will promote American economy and trade. relations,” he added at a weekly press conference. This is evident from a CNBC translation of his comments in Mandarin.
Trump said last week he spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping about TikTok and trade. The Chinese side’s readout did not mention the social media app but said Xi called for cooperation and described the two countries’ economic ties as mutually beneficial.
“Tariffs are not beneficial to China or the US, or to the whole world,” trade spokesman He said.
“China is willing to work with the US to push bilateral economic and trade relations in a stable, healthy and sustainable direction,” he said, noting that this was on the basis of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win -cooperation.”
The comments echoed those made by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning on Tuesday.
“We stand ready to maintain communication with the US, properly deal with disagreements, expand mutual cooperation and pursue stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations to strive for,” Mao said when asked about the tariff negotiations.
“China will also vigorously defend its own interests,” she said. This is evident from an official English transcript.
Even if 10% tariffs are imposed on China, that is much lower than the original 60% imposed by Trump during his campaign.
Hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump reiterated plans for 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, without specifying a figure for China. He said only that higher tariffs could be used to force Beijing-based ByteDance to sell social media app TikTok, whose future availability in the US is now in doubt.
When asked about TikTok on Thursday, China’s trade spokesman said China “hopes the US side will listen more to the voices of businesses and the public” and “do more things that are conducive to economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States. and the well-being of the people.”