China yesterday warned after another round of talks on a sprawling trade dispute with Washington that any deals they produce “will not take effect” if US President Donald Trump’s threatened tariff hike on Chinese goods goes ahead.
The warning came after delegations led by US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and China’s top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴), wrapped up a meeting on Beijing’s pledge to narrow its trade surplus.
Ross said at the start of the event that they had discussed specific US exports China might purchase, but the talks ended with no joint statement and neither side released details.
Photo: AP
The White House threw the meeting’s status into doubt on Tuesday by renewing a threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on US$50 billion of Chinese high-tech goods in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.
The event went ahead despite that, but Beijing said it reserved the right to retaliate.
“If the United States introduces trade sanctions, including a tariff increase, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated by the two parties will not take effect,” said the Chinese statement, carried by Xinhua news agency.
The negotiating process should be “based on the premise” of not fighting a “trade war,” the statement said.
The US embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump is pressing Beijing to narrow its politically volatile trade surplus with the US, which reached a record US$375.2 billion last year.
Tensions eased after China promised on May 19 to “significantly increase” purchases of farm goods, energy and other products and services following the last round of talks in Washington.
US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said the dispute was “on hold” and the tariff hike would be postponed.
That truce appeared to end with Tuesday’s surprise announcement.
Private sector analysts say that while Beijing is willing to compromise on its trade surplus, it will resist changes that might threaten plans to transform China into a global technology competitor.
Ross was accompanied by agriculture, Treasury and trade officials for the meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Liu’s delegation included People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang (易綱) and the minister of commerce.
Ross and Liu held a working dinner on Saturday.
“Our meetings so far have been friendly and frank, and covered some useful topics about specific export items,” said Ross at the opening of yesterday’s meeting.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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