China hopes trade war deal will come ‘as soon as possible’, vows once again to reform economy

China’s assistant minister of commerce Ren Hongbin said Beijing is hoping negotiations can conclude on a trade deal soon

Ren would not divulge any further detail, but advised gathered media to watch the Ministry of Commerce’s future press statements for more information

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Ren Hongbin, assistant minister of commerce, said China hopes a trade deal can be reach as soon as possible. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 4:17pm, 9 Dec 2019Updated: 12:05am, 10 Dec 2019

As the clock ticks towards December 15, when additional tariffs from both the United States and China would be applied to each other’s exports, Beijing has said it hopes that a trade war deal will be reached “as soon as possible”.

Ren Hongbin, assistant minister of commerce, said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday that “China hopes the negotiations can keep moving forward based on the principles of equality and mutual respect and reach a result that could satisfy all parties as soon as possible”.

Ren would not divulge any further detail on the long-running negotiations, but with the tariff deadline rapidly approaching, he advised gathered media to watch the Ministry of Commerce’s future press releases for more details.

Talks are reported to have been held up by a number of key issues, including the amount of US farm goods that China will commit to buying, whether Beijing will publicly commit to a fixed number, and the nature and extent of tariff removal.

China hopes the negotiations can keep moving forward based on the principles of equality and mutual respect and reach a result that could satisfy all parties as soon as possible

Ren Hongbin

Ren said that the Chinese government’s “attitude and stance” has been consistent, and reiterated the oft-cited government line that when it comes to US-China relations, “both benefit from cooperation, but both get hurt from conflict”. He added that in negotiating, both sides should “take care of each other’s core concerns”.

On December 15 around US$160 billion of Chinese goods will face a new 15 per cent tariff on arrival at US ports. China, meanwhile, will impose a range of tariffs of 5 and 10 per cent on thousands of US products, including agricultural goods, chemicals, car parts and pharmaceutical products. This is the second tranche of tariffs announced in August, the first of which went into force on September 1. The two tranches have a combined value of around US$75 billion.

On Friday, China announced that it would exempt “some” American soybeans and pork from duties when entering its ports, but little additional detail was forthcoming. Nonetheless, it was read as another goodwill gesture amid ongoing negotiations, with China also having removed barriers to US poultry imports in October.