Chinese commerce minister meets with US trade representative at WTO conference in Abu Dhabi
- Wang Wentao speaks with Katherine Tai on the sidelines and delivers Beijing’s ‘solemn concerns’ about Taiwan and tariffs, according to a Commerce Ministry statement
- Ahead of the conference, the US calls China ‘the biggest challenge to the international trading system’, with Beijing responding by accusing Washington of bullying
China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, expressed Beijing’s “solemn concerns” over US tariffs and Taiwan-related issues in the economic and trade domain during a meeting with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Monday.
Wang and Tai conducted “professional and in-depth” communication on bilateral and multilateral economic and trade issues of mutual concerns as they met on the sidelines of the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Abu Dhabi, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce.
The US side raised concerns regarding China’s excess capacity of steel on the global market and the imbalances caused by Beijing’s “state-led, non-market approach to trade policy”, according to a USTR readout.
It said that Tai expressed the need for continued communication and collaboration between the two countries, while the two sides agreed to work on areas of shared cooperation, including their respective commitments to the WTO.
On the eve of the four-day conference, the USTR office published a 80-page report on China’s membership in the WTO, calling China “the biggest challenge to the international trading system”.