The China commerce ministry stated on Thursday that it Beijing will not hesitate to answer back if the U.S. decides to amplify its trade spat with Beijing. Further solidifying Chinese president Xi Jinping’s promise to lessen import tariffs is clearly not a concession towards Washington.
On Tuesday, president Xi pledged to open China’s economy further and cut import tariffs on goods like cars. On Twitter, United States president Donald Trump was seen posting a tweet saying that he was thankful for Xi’s words and permission for auto-manufacturing firms to access the Chinese markets.
Trump was recently threatening China with tariff threats, while Washington is accusing firms in China of stealing U.S. company trade secrets, urging them into joint ventures to steal their technology.
Chinese president Xi’s pledge this week is considered to be misleading to say that it was a concession to the U.S., as stated by commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
Gao also added that president Xi was simply enumerating China’s strategy to further open its door to the country’s financial sector. It also didn’t have anything to do with it’s trade spat with the United States.
On Monday, Trump took his fight to Twitter, criticizing China for maintaining the 25 percent import tariffs on vehicles versus to the United States’ 2.5 percent tariffs. Trump called this trade relationship with China as not a free trade but as a “stupid trade”.