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China today criticised US President Donald Trump’s announcement to impose tariffs on imports steel and aluminium saying that such unilateral measures will harm the world trade.
If countries around the world follow US measures it will harm the world trade, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told media briefing.
She said in recent years, the world economy is recovering slowly. The global recovery is still unstable. All countries should make concerted efforts and cooperate to resolve relevant issues instead of taking measures unilaterally , she sad.
Multilateral trade rules
China urges the US to abide by the multilateral trade rules and make contribution to the international trade and economy,”she said.
Trump said on Thursday that his administration will impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports early as next week. The announcement created furore around the world.
Trump said the US will impose a 25 per cent tariff on steel imports and 10 per cent tariff on aluminium to shore up the struggling industries in America.
The new US tariffs were expected to further affect China’s steel sector specially as it suffered from over capacity.
Canada and the EU said they would bring forward their own countermeasures to the steep new tariffs.
Sanctions
The US tariffs as well as remarks by US officials saying that backing China’s inclusion into World Trade Organisation, (WTO) was a mistake was also sharply criticised by Wang Guoqing, spokesman of the China Peoples Political Consultative Conference, (CPPCC).
Addressing a press conference ahead of the annual meeting of the CPPCC to begin here on March 4, Wang said, a big country like should honour its words instead of renege on its promise and resorting to unilateral sanctions.
Referring to the criticism that admitting China to WTO was a mistake, Wang said China has delivered its commitments on market access under WTO.
China opposes protectionism and increased IPR protection has created a level playing field, he said referring to criticism that China has not opened much of its economy for foreign investments and trade.
What is worrisome to many WTO members is the unilateral actions from US. As important members of WTO, China and US should uphold its rules and together improve the rules based fair and open multilateral system centred around WTO,” he said.
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