BEIJING: China on Monday (Apr 21) said it “firmly opposes” other countries making trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, warning it would take “countermeasures” against them.
China will take the countermeasures in a “resolute and reciprocal manner” if any country sought such deals, its commerce ministry said, addressing news about the Trump administration preparing to pressure other countries to limit trade with China in exchange for tariff exemptions from the US.
While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 per cent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 per cent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 per cent on US goods.
A number of countries are now engaged in negotiations with the US to lower tariffs, parallel to Washington’s full trade war against top US economic rival China.
China respects all parties resolving economic and trade differences with the US through consultation on an equal footing, but warned nations not to seek a deal with the US that compromised its interests.
“Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” a spokesperson for Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement.
“To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger,” Beijing said.
That approach, it warned, “will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others”.
“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the spokesperson said. “If such a situation occurs, China will never accept it and will resolutely take reciprocal countermeasures.”
China is determined and capable of safeguarding its own rights and interests, the ministry said.
