The United States should completely cancel the wrong practice of "reciprocal tariffs," and return to the right path of resolving differences through mutual respect and equal dialogue, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.
In response to the U.S. decision to exempt certain products from "reciprocal tariffs", the ministry said that China has noticed that this is the second adjustment to the relevant policies following the U.S. side's temporary suspension of high tariffs on certain trade partners on April 10, but described it as "a small symbolic step taken by the U.S. side to correct its erroneous actions".
China has been evaluating the potential impact, the ministry added.
On April 12, Eastern Time, the U.S. released memorandums exempting certain products, such as computers, smartphones, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and integrated circuits, from the "reciprocal tariffs." Issuing the so-called "reciprocal tariffs" through a simple executive order not only violates fundamental economic and market principles, but also ignores the cooperative and complementary supply-demand relationships among nations, the ministry noted.
Issuing the tariffs policy on April 2 has failed to address any of the issues in the U.S. Instead, the policy has severely violated international economic and trade rules, significantly interfered with the normal operations of businesses, and impacted the daily lives and consumption patterns of ordinary people. This will hurt others without benefiting oneself, the ministry said.
The ministry emphasized that China's position on China-U.S. economic and trade relations is consistent. There are no winners in a trade war and there is no way out for protectionism.
"Let the person who tied the bell on the tiger untie it," to quote a Chinese saying. China urges the United States to listen to the voice of reason from the international community and various parties, take a big step forward to cancel the so-called "reciprocal tariffs" all together, and return to the right path of mutual respect and resolving differences through equal dialogue, the ministry said.
China urges US to cancel "reciprocal tariffs": commerce ministry
