White House: China has 'much more to lose' in a trade dispute

WASHINGTON: China has more to lose than the United States in the two nations' burgeoning trade dispute but Washington remains open to dialogue with its largest trading partner, a senior White House advisor said today.

Trade brinkmanship between Washington and Beijing continued late yesterday when President Donald Trump threatened to put fresh duties on between USD 200 billion and USB 400 billion in Chinese imports.

The possible new duties, which could cover the lion's share of all of China's exports to the United States, were a response to retaliatory Chinese levies on up to USD 50 billion in US goods announced Friday.

With Wall Street sliding further into the red today and nerves on edge among lawmakers in Trump's Republican Party, senior White House economic aide Peter Navarro defended the new trade policy.

"It's clear that China does have much more to lose," he told reporters, noting that China exported more than USD 500 billion to the US last year, far more than the USD 130 billion it imported from the United States.

Navarro reiterated Washington's accusations that China had used the string of unfair practices -- cyber-theft, state-sponsored corporate acquisitions, forced technology transfers and export restrictions -- to target global dominance in advanced new industrial sectors.

"It is important to note here that the actions President Trump has taken are purely defensive in nature," Navarro said.

"They are designed to defend the crown jewels of American technology from China's aggressive behaviour." These included aerospace, advanced rail and shipping, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, biotechnology, new energy vehicles, precision farming and robotics, said, Navarro.

"These are the future of the world and of America and China cannot have 70 per cent of the production of these industries by 2025," he added, referring to a Chinese industrial development plan denounced by Washington.

Navarro said US officials planned to cushion against the blows to American industries and workers in the United States and present in China but declined to elaborate on any plans to help the US farming sector.

"President Trump will have the backs of all Americans who may be targeted by Chinese actions and with respect to the farmers in Iowa or any other state," Navarro said.

Efforts to convince Beijing to change its ways had so far failed despite several rounds of transpacific diplomacy, he added.