CHINA/FOREIGN POLICY/TRADE DEALS/WTO: “China urged the Trump administration to back off plans for tough trade actions, calling on the U.S. to remain cooperative and warning that conflict would hurt both sides.
Beijing hopes to avoid a trade war with the U.S., but is preparing to target American businesses if Washington moves forward with trade sanctions, Chinese government advisers and industry experts said.
China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday [8-3-17] that all members of the World Trade Organization should abide by its rules, and reminded the U.S. that the two economies are intertwined. ‘We both win through cooperation. We both are hurt in a fight,’ spokesman Gao Feng said in remarks posted on the ministry’s website.
The Trump administration is considering invoking a little-used provision of U.S. trade law to penalize China for perceived unfair trade practices, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Doing so would mark a break from the two countries’ reliance on the WTO to adjudicate their disputes and would likely aggravate tensions over North Korea and the South China Sea.
The Trump administration has shown increasing disappointment with Beijing for not reining in North Korea’s missile development or offering concessions to rein in a trade imbalance heavily in China’s favor. A U.S. and China high-level economic dialogue ended without agreement last month.”
-Eva Dou, “China Pushes Back on U.S. Accusations on Trade, Urges Cooperation,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 3, 2017 08:58am