China has called off planned trade talks with the US and is unlikely to sit down with Washington until after its midterm elections, people familiar with the situation said.
Beijing has withdrawn a planned delegation to Washington next week, the people told Bloomberg.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Beijing had scrapped plans to send Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) and a mid-level delegation.
Photo: AFP
In addition to new tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods to go into effect tomorrow, the US Department of State sanctions against China’s defense agency and its director on Thursday contributed to the ultimate decision to cancel the talks, the people said.
“It would be ‘asking for an insult’ if China went ahead with trade talks after the US announced new tariffs and sanctions,” Renmin University of China international relations professor Shi Yinhong (時殷弘) said yesterday. “In the long run, there will be talks, because the trade war won’t last for thousands of years.”
In his push for what he calls a level playing field in dealing with China, US President Donald Trump slapped the new tariffs on imports from China and threatened more if Beijing retaliated.
The US Ministry of Commerce and the US Ministry of Finance did not respond to faxes inquiring about the matter.
Earlier, the Trump administration said it needs to confront China over its trading practices to defend long-term US interests even as the escalation risks are causing pain for US consumers.
Inaction would leave the US economy and consumers worse off over the longer run, a senior administration official told reporters on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
US industry has widely pushed back against the administration’s use of tariffs to force changes to China’s economy, and companies from Walmart Inc to Gap Inc and Samsonite International SA have said they are prepared to raise prices if the tariffs bite into their business.
Trump continued to hit out at China late this week, signaling that the trade war would not end any time soon.
“It’s time to take a stand on China,” he said in an interview on Thursday with Fox News. ”We have no choice. It’s been a long time. They’re hurting us.”
“The new US tariffs on Chinese goods, mostly consumer-oriented, will depress spending and hurt the retail sector beginning in 2019,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Seema Shah and Danielle McIntee wrote in a note on Friday. “Lower-income families, already pinching pennies, are most exposed given the likelihood of tariff-related price increases on everyday items.”
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