‘No winners in a trade war’
China’s vice premier appeals for global co-operation as spat with Trump hots up
ATOP CHINESE official warned yesterday that a “trade war” would harm all sides, but gave no indication of Beijing’s possible next move in a spiralling dispute with US President Donald Trump over steel and technology.
Speaking to global business leaders at a development forum, Vice Premier Han Zheng appealed for co-operation to make economic globalisation “beneficial for all”.
“A trade war serves the interests of none,” said Han at the China Development Forum.
“It will only lead to serious consequences and negative impact.”
Han did not mention Trump by name or refer directly to the dispute with Washington, but the country’s newly appointed economy czar warned on Saturday that Beijing would defend its interests.
The government issued a $3 billion (R35.2bn) list on Friday of US goods, including pork and stainless steel pipes, which it said might be hit by higher tariffs.
The Commerce Ministry said those charges were linked to Trump’s approval earlier of higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. But a bigger battle is brewing over Trump’s approval on Thursday of a possible tariff hike on $30bn of Chinese goods in response to what Washington says is Beijing’s improper acquisition of foreign technology.
Global financial markets have sunk on fears that Chinese retaliation might prompt other governments to raise import barriers, depressing global trade.
Han appealed to other governments to “co-operate with each other like passengers in the same boat” and “make economic globalisation more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all”.
However, he also emphasised that China’s income per person was still low, suggesting Beijing was unlikely to offer significant concessions to Washington.
Han repeated promises that planned Chinese market opening would create new opportunities for foreign companies.
Business groups have welcomed reform pledges but complain that Beijing is moving too slowly, making it unclear if additional promises will mollify Washington, the EU and other trading partners.
In a phone call on Saturday with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Vice Premier Liu He said Beijing was “ready and capable of defending its national interests and hopes both sides will remain rational”.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook at an economic forum acknowledged tensions in Western societies that fueled demands for import controls and said companies must take action to spread the benefits of globalisation more widely.
“Not everyone has benefited like all of us in this room have from technology and globalisation, and we all must help to address this disparity,” said Cook, co-chairperson of the event.
“Their cause must become our cause.”
The annual forum, which brings together corporate leaders with Chinese economic officials, is usuallyused to showcase Beijing’s plans. This year, those include ambitious promises to open financial markets and give entrepreneurs and foreign companies a bigger role in China’s state-dominated economy.
Other business leaders at the event included IBM’s chairperson Virginia Rometty, chief executive Patrick Pouyanne of French oil giant Total SA, Bank of China chairperson Chen Siqing and chief executive Ulf Mark Schneider of Nestlé SA. It also was attended by China’s newly appointed central bank governor, Yi Gang, and other Chinese economic leaders.
This year’s forum has been overshadowed by the growing rancour between Washington and Beijing over Trump’s efforts to redress what he says is an unfair trading relationship.
Washington accuses China of flooding global markets with unfairly low-priced steel and other goods and stealing or pressuring foreign companies to hand over technology.
“The business community has always supported the idea that an open market fosters new ideas and allow entrepreneurship to thrive,” said Cook.
“The strongest companies and economies are those that are open – those that thrive on diversity of people and ideas.”
At a conference on “the challenge of global inequality” ahead of the economic forum, the chief executive of asset manager BlackRock Incorporated pointed to the fall in global financial markets and appealed to the two governments to avoid a “public fight”.
“Dialogue and maybe some adjustment in trade and trade policy can be in order,” Laurence D Fink told reporters on Saturday.