China demanded that the US revoke all unilateral tariffs and said there were no talks on reaching a trade deal, as tensions spiral between the world’s largest economies.
“The US should respond to rational voices in the international community and within its own borders and thoroughly remove all unilateral tariffs imposed on China, if it really wants to solve the problem,” He Yadong, the Ministry of Commerce’s spokesman, said at a regular briefing on Thursday in Beijing.
He also dismissed speculation that progress has been made in bilateral communications, saying “any reports on development in talks are groundless,” and urging the US to “show sincerity” if it wants to make a deal.
The remarks suggest that President Donald Trump’s comments this week signalling that he could lower tariffs on China — which currently stand at 145% for most goods — will not be enough to de-escalate tensions. The US leader said Wednesday that “everything’s active” when asked if he was engaging with China and that Beijing was “going to do fine” once talks had settled.
China has responded to Trump’s volatile tariff moves with caution, with Beijing at one point calling the high levels of levies “meaningless”. Chinese authorities have also warned other countries against striking deals with the US that could hurt its interests, an example of how trade frictions could undermine trust between nations.
The Commerce Ministry’s remarks come hours after Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, warned of the threat ongoing frictions pose to trust in the global economic system.
“All parties should strengthen cooperation and make efforts to prevent the global economy from sliding into a track of ‘high friction, low trust',” Pan said at a Group of 20 meeting in Washington on Wednesday, according to a social media post by state broadcaster China Central Television.
Pan is one of the leading members of a Chinese delegation attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this week in the US capital, where discussions involving the US, EU and other G20 members are also taking place.
The events are expected to provide the first opportunity for Chinese economic officials to meet with Trump’s team in person since he drastically hiked tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this month, before any formal negotiations to cool trade tensions.
However, neither side has announced any bilateral meetings despite Trump’s move to soften his tone on tariffs that are expected to dent growth of the world’s second-largest economy.
There are “no winners in trade wars” and China will remain open to the outside world and firmly support free trade and the multilateral trading system, Pan said, according to the report.