Good faith not tariffs basis for positive outcomes from talks

As China's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Li Chenggang pointed out in a meeting of the World Trade Organization General Council in Geneva on Tuesday, the United States' imposition of unilateral and arbitrary tariffs on China and other trading partners has caused global "tariff shocks".

Although it has been just one month since the Donald Trump administration took office, the shock waves it has caused with its weaponizing of tariffs have created the impression it has been in power for longer. Such actions blatantly violate WTO rules, heighten economic uncertainty, disrupt global trade, and could even undermine the multilateral trading system.

Yet there seems to be a misconception on the part of some countries that the US is granting clemency to some economies by favoring them with a lower tariff rate.

But a tariff is a tariff. Although a 10 percent tariff hike is lower than a 25 percent hike, they are both of the same unjust nature. They are both being used by the US administration as economic coercion, and both harm the global industry and supply chains.

The Trump administration is not showing leniency or favoritism with differential tariffs, but acting in accordance with its own calculations of the potential blowback from the tariffs on the US weighed against the perceived benefits.

That explains why China has promptly taken countermeasures against the US tariffs while other parties have only paid lip service to their vowed retaliation against the US' unfair tariffs in the hope that by doing so they will receive some concessions at the negotiation table.

Soon after Trump slapped 10 percent duties on all Chinese imports, China responded with 15 percent duties on US coal and liquefied natural gas products, and a 10 percent tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the US, along with tightened export controls on some rare metals used as key components in the defense and clean energy industries, and the inclusion of two US companies on its unreliable entity list.

Beijing believes tariff disputes are only a part of the Sino-US relations and its countermeasures take into full consideration the necessity of preventing the trade dispute from hurting overall bilateral ties.

That is why Beijing has never stopped seeking a solution to the trade dispute through the World Trade Organization dispute settlement mechanism and direct dialogue with the US side.

In the latest move to show its willingness to strengthen exchanges with the US in that regard, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao sent a letter to the newly appointed US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Wednesday, congratulating him on assuming the position as the 41st US secretary of commerce, and raising concerns over the US decision to impose the additional tariffs on Chinese imports.

As Wang said, strengthening the bilateral economic and trade cooperation between the two largest economies in the world is of great importance to the development of both countries and to global economic growth.

Over the past years, the trade departments of both countries have played a key role in promoting and advancing bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and Wang said that his department remains willing to work with the US side to strengthen dialogue and manage differences.

That Wang held talks with a visiting Japanese business delegation on Tuesday is a further sign of another consequence of the US administration's slap-happy tariffing, as countries, including US allies and partners, are trying to boost their economic and trade relations with China.

The US side should realize there are no winners in a tariff war, and the US, as the starter of it, is antagonizing the rest of the world, raising the operation cost of the global economy, and shaking the foundation of the postwar order it established in its favor. Not to mention the chain reactions the tariffs are having on the US economy and industry.

When asked at a regular news conference on Thursday about China's response to Trump recently saying the US and China might reach new trade deals and he hoped the top Chinese leader can visit the US, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterated that China's stance on trade and bilateral ties remains consistent. That stance provides broad space for the two sides to handle their trade dispute properly and to keep ties on the right track for healthy development.