SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday urged the United States to “calm down” and return to reason after the Trump administration sought to ratchet up pressure for trade concessions by proposing a higher 25-percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers, including one labelled "China Shipping," are stacked at the Paul W. Conley Container Terminal in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump directed the increase from a previously proposed 10 percent duty because China has refused to meet U.S. demands and has imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.
Trump’s threats of higher tariffs weighed on China’s financial markets. But Wang Yi, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, said U.S. efforts to pressure China would be in vain, urging its trade policymakers to “calm down”.
“We hope that those directly involved in the United States’ trade policies can calm down, carefully listen to the voices of U.S. consumers...and hear the collective call of the international community,” Wang, a member of the country’s state council, or cabinet, said in Singapore.
“The United States’ method of adding pressure will not, I’m afraid, have any effect,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a regional forum.
Worsening trade tension between the two countries would not affect China’s stance on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, Wang said. “We deal with diplomatic matters on the basis of principle, not by engaging in trade.”
The Chinese yuan also ticked lower against the dollar, extending its year-to-date decline to more than 4.5 percent.
There have been no formal talks between Washington and Beijing for weeks over Trump’s demands that China make fundamental changes to its policies on intellectual property protection, technology
