Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said on the 19th that China has filed additional lawsuits against the United States at the WTO in response to its plan to impose additional tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese products. This is a necessary move to defend the basic principles of the WTO.
Gao Feng said at a press conference that day that the United States’ imposition of tariffs on US$34 billion of Chinese goods violated the WTO’s most-favored-nation principle and binding tariff obligations, and China will resort to the WTO. This time the United States released a list of plans to impose additional tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, and China further filed lawsuits at the WTO.
“Whether we want a multilateral trading system or not is a major issue of principle.” He said that in response to some people’s wanton destruction of the principles of free trade and the multilateral trading system, we still firmly believe that the rule system jointly formulated by global trading partners and the multilateral trading system jointly built by The trading system should and must be observed and maintained.
Gao Feng said that in response to the escalation of the trade war by the United States, China will have to and will definitely take necessary countermeasures.
Regarding the recent statement by a US official that China was responsible for the breakdown of Sino-US negotiations, Gao Feng said that this statement is not consistent with the facts. “We have noticed that while the United States is holding the big stick of tariffs and practicing trade bullying around the world, it is constantly flaunting its grievances and innocence and placing all responsibilities on the other side.”
He said that since February this year, China and the United States have held four rounds of consultations, and China has always promoted the solution of the problem with the greatest sincerity and a win-win attitude of cooperation. Especially on May 19, the two sides reached important consensus and issued a joint statement. However, on May 29, the United States issued a unilateral statement and betrayed the consensus. In early June, the two sides reached a consensus on specific cooperation in the fields of energy and agriculture. On June 15, the United States once again reneged on the consensus. On July 6, the United States openly provoked a trade war, which escalated again on July 11.
“We deeply regret this and believe that this kind of unilateralism and trade bullying is unacceptable.” Gao Feng said, “Judging from the actual situation of the entire process, it is the U.S. dialect that is untrustworthy and capricious. , closing the door to negotiations between the two parties.” (Title: Ministry of Commerce: China’s additional prosecution of the United States at the WTO is necessary)
