China hopes to “properly manage differences” with the US on trade

BEIJING — China is stressing its willingness to negotiate as increased tariffs on exports to the United States could soon become a reality.

President of the USA Donald Trump he said maybe this week increase tariffs on Chinese goods by 10% already on February 1. The White House also announced this on Monday plans to investigate China due to activities harmful to US trade.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has always maintained contact with “relevant” U.S. authorities on economic and trade matters, ministry spokesman He Yadong said on Thursday in response.

“The Chinese side hopes that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the two 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 his weekly briefing. press conference. That’s according to a translation of his remarks into Mandarin, translated by CNBC.

Last week, Trump said he had spoken to China’s president Xi Jinping by phone about TikTok and commerce. In the readout, the Chinese side did not mention the social media app but said Xi called for cooperation and considered the two countries’ economic ties to be mutually beneficial.

“Tariffs do not favor China, the United States or the world,” a trade spokesman said.

“China is willing to cooperate with the US to steer bilateral economic and trade relations towards a stable, healthy and balanced direction,” he said, noting that it was based on “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.”

The comments echoed the words of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning on Tuesday.

“We are willing to maintain communication with the U.S., properly deal with differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and pursue the steady, healthy and balanced development of China-U.S. relations,” Mao said when asked about the tariff negotiations.

“China will also firmly defend its own interests,” she said. This is according to the official English transcript.

Even if 10% tariffs are imposed on China, it will be much less than the original 60% that Trump proposed during his campaign.

Trump repeated hours after his inauguration on Monday plans to introduce 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canadawithout providing figures for China. He only said that the increased tariffs could be used to force Beijing’s ByteDance to sell the social media app TikTok, whose future availability in the U.S. is now in question.

Asked about TikTok on Thursday, a Chinese trade spokesman said China “hopes the U.S. side will listen more to the voices of enterprises and society” and “do more things to promote economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States.” and the good of people.”