Beijing has dismissed Washington’s tariff war saying thatthreatening orputting pressure on China would lead to nowhere.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian saidThursdaythat the United States should be reminded that the trade wars it has waged would be counterproductive.
“Trade and tariff wars have no winners,” Lin Jian said, stating that China deplores and opposes the move to levy an additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports.
“China urges the US to correct its wrongdoings, address each other’s concerns through equal-footed consultation, and promote the sound, sustainable development of the China-US relationship,” the spokesman said.
He argued that China has taken sufficient measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.
On Trump’s indication that he was in no hurry to speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping after announcing the tariffs, China said its position wouldn’t change.
The two world leaders spoke on the phone onJanuary 17, a position that Lin Jian said Beijing had taken note of.
“In the phone conversation between the two presidents, the Chinese side has made our principled position clear and the two sides have reached a common understanding on engaging in mutually beneficial cooperation,” the spokesman said.
For China, “what is needed now are not unilateral tariff hikes but equal-footed dialogue and consultation with mutual respect".
US imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese products due to fentanyl issues.
China reiterated by imposing counter-tariffs of 10 to 15 per cent on some US products.
On the reasons advanced by the US to impose the new charges, China said it has dealt with the fentanyl issue conclusively.
“China is one of the world’s toughest countries on counternarcotics both in terms of policy and its implementation. Fentanyl is an issue for the US and the root cause lies in the country itself,” the ministry said.
Lin Jian added that “China has given support to the US response to the fentanyl issue in the spirit of humanity.”
“At the US request, China announced back in 2019 the decision to officially schedule fentanyl-related substances as a class. We are the first country in the world to do so. In recent years, China has conducted practical counternarcotics cooperation with the US side in a broad-based way,” he said.
“The achievements we have made are there for all to see in such fields as the scheduling of drug-related substances, intelligence sharing, cooperation on individual cases, removal of online ads, exchange on drug testing technology, and multilateral interaction,” Lin Jian explained.
He said it was regrettable that regardless of China’s achievements in the counternarcotics cooperation, the US is still bent on levying the additional tariff.
“Scapegoating others cannot solve problems. Reducing domestic demands for drugs and enhancing law enforcement cooperation is the fundamental solution to the fentanyl crisis in the US.”
