Warning US President Donald Trump to desist from initiating "trade wars" or acting on his poll pledges of hiking tariffs against Chinese goods and declaring Beijing as currency manipulator, China today said that both counties will suffer from such moves.
"People are following US policies closely. We hope US policies are good for domestic stability and prosperity," Chinese Foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying told a media briefing here responding to questions on whether Beijing is worried about Trump's rhetoric on acting against its burgeoning trade with the US.
"We have made our position very clear in the past few days. Economic ties are win win in nature. Trade war have no winners and harms the interests of both sides.
"We have been calling upon both sides to work with mutual respect and equality, mutual benefit, and properly address trade disagreements," she said in response to a question on whether China was worried.
China's comments came even as Trump today pulled US out of the 12 nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which his predecessor Barack Obama had vigorously pursued leaving China out of it.
Beijing is now concerned whether Trump would also act on his poll promise of rising 45 per cent tariffs against Chinese goods and declaring Beijing as currency manipulator, accusing it of trying to reap more benefits of over USD 400 billion exports to US.
The US exports around USD 100 billion worth of goods to China whereas Beijing exports goods worth over USD 400 billion to the US.
Chinese official media has been projecting that Trump may resort to trade and currency wars against China to prop up American economy.
Hua denied that China is manipulating currency.
"In principle, I say that China has no intention to raise trade competitiveness thorough RMB depreciation even as to launch a currency war. We will firmly push forward market based reform of exchange rate, maintain basic stability of RMB exchange at equilibrium level," she said.
RMB or yuan, as Chinese currency is known, has depreciated by eight per cent in recent months.
Speculation is rife that it may depreciate by another five per cent as Chinese exports continue to slowdown.
"We are ready to enhance communication and coordination with the US to uphold normal bilateral trading environment," she said, quoting MOFCOM report stating that trade and investment between the two countries were on the rise and China is one of the most open economy in the world.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
