China ready for trade talks with US

> Vice-president Wang Qishan says both countries should work for a solution to resolve dispute on terms acceptable to both sides

SINGAPORE: China is ready to hold discussions and work with the United States to resolve trade disputes because the world’s two largest economies stand to lose from confrontation, vicepresident Wang Qishan said yesterday.

Beijing and Washington have imposed tit-for-tat duties on each other’s goods over recent months, with neither side backing down from a increasingly bitter trade dispute that has jolted financial markets and cast a pall over the global economy.

The focus is now on US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the month. Trump has threatened to impose further tariffs on US$267 billion (RM1.11 trillion) of Chinese imports into the United States if the two countries cannot reach a deal on trade.

“Both China and the US would love to see greater trade and economic cooperation,” Wang told the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.

“The Chinese side is ready to have discussions with the US on issues of mutual concern and work for a solution on trade acceptable to both sides,” he said.

“The world today faces many major problems that require close cooperation between China and the United States,” he said.

“It is our firm belief that China and the US will both gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.”

Wang echoed comments by President Xi on Monday at a major trade expo that Beijing will embrace greater openness, amid mounting frictions with the United States.

Trump has railed against China for what he sees as intellectual property theft, entry barriers to US business and a gaping trade deficit.

“Negativity and anger are not the way to address the problems that have emerged in economic globalisation, nor will barriers or disputes help solve one’s own problems,” Wang said.

“Instead they would only exacerbate global market turbulence.”

Beijing supports the settlement of international disputes via rules and consensus and stands against unilateralism and protectionism, he added. – Reuters