China to continue trade talks even after Trump threat

BEIJING: China said on Monday it would send its envoy for trade negotiations to Washington even after US President Donald Trump came up with a tweet that threatened the proposed trade deal.
Trump said he would raise duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on Friday. This would be a reversal of his decision last February to allow the rate to remain unchanged during the trade negotiations.
The threat sent the stocks of 300 top Chinese companies listed as CS300 tumbling down 5.8% while hitting US futures as well. Trade experts and the market expected China to either pull out of the talks or refuse to send a negotiating team to Washington this week. But Beijing has decided to plod on.
“We are also in the process of understanding the relevant situation. What I can tell you is that China’s team is preparing to go to the United States for the discussions,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a briefing.
The ministry made it clear it was keen to salvage the deal. Chinese industry has suffered heavily owing to the hikes in tariffs by Washington. It is keen on a settlement to avoid any further increases.
“What is of vital importance is that we still hope the United States can work hard with China to meet each other halfway and strive to reach a mutually beneficial, win-win agreement on the basis of mutual respect,” Geng said.
What the ministry did not clarify is whether China would send the same envoy, vice-premier Liu He, as head of the official delegation as originally planned.
In his tweet, the US president also complained that trade talks were going on very slowly and China was trying to renegotiate on certain aspects.
“The trade deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!,” the US president tweeted.
He indicated that the scope of the tariff would be expanded by bringing in an additional $325 billion worth of Chinese goods that have “remained untaxed”.
The US president also said that his policy of hiking taxes on Chinese goods had paid dividends. “These payments are partially responsible for our great economic results,” he said.
Responding to criticism that rate hikes are making goods costlier for American consumers, Trump tweeted, “The tariffs paid to the USA have had little impact on product cost, mostly borne by China.”