Beijing said Thursday it would be willing to meet the US “halfway” on trade issues shortly after releasing a statement threatening to retaliate if the Trump administration slaps tariffs on more Chinese goods as planned on Sept. 1.
“We hope the U.S. side will meet China halfway, and implement the consensus reached by the two leaders during their meeting in Osaka,” said Hua Chunying, the foreign ministry’s spokeswoman.
She added that “mutually agreeable solutions” can be reached through “dialogue and consultation.”
Earlier, the country’s Council Tariff Committee said the US tariffs “seriously violated” an accord reached by President Trump and China’s Xi Jinping at June’s G-20 summit in Osaka and threatened “countermeasures.”
The Trump administration said it would impose 10 percent penalties on an additional $300 billion worth of goods — a move that would cover nearly all of China’s exports to the US — beginning Sept. 1.
In its one-sentence statement announcing the possible “countermeasures,” Beijing did not go into detail on what they would entail and did not address how that might affect trade talks planned for next month in Washington.
The statement also did not mention Trump’s decision on Tuesday to hold off on adding penalties to about 60 percent of those goods until Dec. 15 to give US companies time to stock up on products for the holiday season.
Many consumer-friendly products — including cellphones, laptops, video games, clothing and shoes — were among the products targeted in the new round of tariffs.
Negotiations between the two countries have broken down repeatedly and the continuing tit-for-tat tariff battle is wreaking havoc on the market by slowing global economic growth.
The escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing was one of the reasons for the bloodbath on Wall Street on Wednesday, when the Dow Jones plummeted more than 800 points.
Trump has already hit China with 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion worth of imports, while Beijing has placed duties on $110 billion worth of US goods.
With Post wires