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

BEIJING — China is stressing its willingness to negotiate as higher tariffs on U.S. exports could soon become a reality.

President of the United States Donald Trump said this week that he could increase customs duties on Chinese goods by 10% as soon as February 1. The White House on Monday also announced plans to investigate China opposes actions that harm US commerce.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has always been in touch with “relevant” US authorities on economic and trade issues, ministry spokesman He Yadong said on Thursday.

“The Chinese side hopes that under the strategic leadership of the leaders of the two countries, 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 economy and trade. relations,” he added during the weekly press conference. This is stated in the CNBC translation of his remarks in Chinese.

Trump said last week that he had spoken with the Chinese president Xi Jinping by phone about TikTok and trading. 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 are not good for China, the US, or the world,” said trade representative He.

“China is ready to work with the US to promote bilateral economic and trade relations in a stable, healthy and sustainable direction,” he said, noting that this is based on “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation.”

The comments echoed those of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Maa Ning on Tuesday.

“We are willing to maintain communication with the US, properly resolve differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and continue the stable, reasonable and sustainable development of China-US relations,” Mao said when asked about the tariff negotiations.

“China will also firmly defend its interests,” she said. This is stated in the official English-language transcript.

Even if 10% tariffs are imposed on China, that is far lower than the original 60% that Trump proposed during his campaign.

Hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump repeated plans 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canadawithout specifying a figure for China. He said only that the increased tariffs could be used to force Beijing-based ByteDance to sell social media app TikTok, whose future availability in the US is now in question.

When asked about TikTok on Thursday, Chinese commerce official He said that China “hopes that the American side will listen more to the voices of business and the public” and “do more things that promote economic and trade cooperation between China and United States”. and people’s well-being.”