US trade gap complaints ‘perplexing’ but China’s door is still open for talks, Wang Yi says

Washington’s complaints about trade imbalances between the US and China are “perplexing” but Beijing’s door remains open for talks, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday.

Wang, who is also a State Councillor, added that dialogue should be based on mutual respect while threats and pressure would be “counterproductive”, reiterating that Beijing did not want a trade war with Washington.

“China’s door of dialogue and negotiation remains open, but any dialogue must be based on equality, mutual respect and rules. Any threat or pressure by one side will only be counterproductive,” Wang said during a joint news conference with Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in Beijing.

Beijing and Washington have been locked in a trade dispute since they began applying 25 per cent tariffs on US$34 billion of each other’s goods on July 6, with duties on another US$16 billion of products in the pipeline. The US is working on a list of an additional US$200 billion of Chinese goods to be subject to 10 per cent tariffs from as early as September.

Washington has demanded Beijing act to buy more US products to reduce a US$350 billion trade surplus, and China agreed to significantly increase its imports from the US, especially agricultural and energy products, to avoid a trade war. But the deals collapsed in June after Washington resumed its tariff threats, which Beijing vowed to hit back against.

“Regretfully, the US has not taken on its obligations nor has it tried to meet us halfway,” Wang said, adding that Beijing did not want to fight a trade war but it had to take countermeasures against Washington’s aggression.