US-China trade war puts Hong Kong at risk, city’s commerce secretary says
In Washington, Edward Yau stresses that Hong Kong is vulnerable because it is ‘the most open trading agent in our part of the world’
Hong Kong’s commerce secretary urged the Trump administration on Wednesday to stop escalating trade tensions with China and work together towards a solution, saying his city’s status as a global trading hub might be at risk.
Speaking to the Washington-based Atlantic Council, Edward Yau Tang-wah, the city’s secretary for commerce and economic development, said Hong Kong was caught in the crossfire in the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
“Hong Kong is in fact the first to suffer from any trade dispute among big players, because we are most vulnerable as the most open trading agent in our part of the world,” he said.
In a defence of free trade, Yau said that no country, big or small, should abandon global trade, whatever its concerns.
“The beauty of free trade is that it’s not a zero-sum game. Will trade winds still prevail if hurricanes become the new normal?” asked Yau, who was on his second trip to the United States since US President Donald Trump officially began the trade stand-off with Beijing by assessing punitive tariffs on US$34 billion in Chinese imports in July.