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, June 29, 2019.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
BEIJING – China is stressing its willingness to negotiate as increased tariffs on exports to the United States could soon become a reality.
American president Donald Trump he said this week that he could increase tariffs on Chinese goods by 10 percent as soon as February 1, the White House on Monday also announced plans to investigate China for actions harmful to American trade.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has always maintained communication with “relevant” US authorities on the economy and trade, ministry spokesman He Yadong said Thursday.
“The Chinese side hopes that under the strategic leadership of the two heads of state, both sides … will strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote the stable and healthy development of China-US economic and trade relations,” he added during weekly press conferences. That’s according to CNBC’s Mandarin translation of his remarks.
Trump said last week that he had spoken with the Chinese president Xi Jinping over the phone about TikTok and commerce. The Chinese side did not mention the social media app, but said Xi called for cooperation and described the two countries’ economic ties as mutually beneficial.
“The tariffs do not benefit China or the US, or the whole world,” said trade spokesman He.
“China is willing to work with the US to push bilateral economic and trade relations in a stable, healthy and sustainable direction,” he said, stressing that this is based on “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.” .
The comments echoed those of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning on Tuesday.
“We are willing to maintain communication with the US, properly resolve differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and strive for stable, healthy and sustainable development of Sino-US relations,” Mao said when asked about the tariff negotiations.
“China will also firmly defend its interests,” she said. This is according to the official transcript in English.
Even if 10% tariffs are imposed on China, that is far lower than the original 60% that Trump offered during his campaign.
Hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump repeated plans 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canadawithout giving a figure for China. He said only that the increased 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, Chinese trade spokesman He said China “hopes that 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 welfare of the people .”
