‘Capricious’ US trade actions will hurt own workers — China
BEIJING (Reuters) — 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 because the US government is being unpredictable and challenging, Beijing has had to respond in a strong manner, commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a regular briefing in Beijing.
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 alleged that China is stealing US intellectual property, a charge denied by Beijing.
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 said.
China could hit back at US firms listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average if Trump keeps heightening tensions 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.
“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.”
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who views China as a hostile economic and military power, said on Tuesday that Trump’s actions are a necessary defense of the “crown jewels” in the US economy.
None of the US administration’s efforts to negotiate with Beijing has yielded progress on changing China’s “predatory” trade practices, Navarro said.
He maintained that China had more to lose from a trade war.