US capricious trade actions will hurt workers, China says

Beijing to continue its own path

BEIJING, June 21, (RTRS): China’s commerce ministry on Thursday accused the United States of being “capricious” over bilateral trade issues, and warned that the interests of US workers and farmers ultimately will be hurt by Washington’s penchant for brandishing “big sticks”.

Previous trade negotiations with the United States were constructive, but Beijing has had to respond in a strong manner due to the US tariff threats, commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said.

President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to hit $200 billion of Chinese imports with 10 percent tariffs if Beijing retaliates against his previous announcement to target $50 billion in imports. The United States has accused China of stealing US intellectual property, a charge Beijing denies. Washington’s accusations of forced tech transfers are a distortion of reality, and China is fully prepared to respond with “quantitative” and “qualitative” tools if the US releases a new list of tariffs, Gao told a regular briefing in Beijing.

China could hit back at US firms listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average if Trump keeps heightening tension with Beijing over trade, statecontrolled Chinese tabloid the Global Times said on Thursday.

The 30-stock Dow, which counts Boeing Co, Apple Inc and Nike Inc among its constituents, fell 0.17 percent on Wednesday and has declined 0.25 percent this year. By contrast, China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has slumped 13.1 percent year-to-date.

“It is deeply regrettable that the US has been capricious, escalated the tensions, and provoked a trade war,” Gao said. “The US is accustomed to holding ‘big sticks’ for negotiations, but this approach does not apply to China.”

Hostile

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who views China as a hostile economic and military power, said on Tuesday Trump’s actions were a necessary defence of the “crown jewels” in the US economy. None of the US administration’s efforts to negotiate with Beijing had yielded progress on changing China’s “predatory” trade practices, Navarro said.

Fending off criticism from some Western countries, China has said it is willing to boost imports and widen market access.

In April, President Xi Jinping told a high-profile Chinese forum that import tariffs would be cut on goods such as cars, among other promises. In May, Beijing said it would lower import tariffs on 1,449 consumer goods, starting from July 1.

“I’ve been honouring my words with actions,” Xi told a group of foreign chief executives in Beijing on Thursday.

Xi said countries should not fight among themselves, but instead cooperate and meet challenges together, adding that the last global financial crisis happened not too long ago.

“We still have vivid memories of what happened during the financial crisis and we are not yet fully recovered,” he said.

“We must also stay vigilant because, as economic growth still lacks momentum, we have seen a surge of trade protectionism, isolationism and populism.”

Global financial markets have shuddered this week amid worries about open trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies.

Three rounds of high-level talks since early May failed to reach a compromise on US complaints over Chinese practices and its record deficit with China. Last year, the deficit was about $375 billion, as China imported $129.89 billion of US goods, while the United States purchased $505.47 billion of Chinese products, according to US data.