China urged the United States on Thursday to make a “wise decision” on trade, saying it was ready to respond in case Washington chose confrontation, as U.S. President Donald prepares to decide whether to activate tariffs on Chinese goods.
Trump is due to unveil revisions to his initial tariff list targeting $50 billion of Chinese goods on Friday. People familiar with the revisions said the list would be slightly smaller than the original, with some goods deleted and others added, particularly in the technology sector.
Another administration official said a draft document showed the new list would still be close to $50 billion, with about 1,300 product categories, but both the dollar amount and quantity of products were still subject to change.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at his side, the Chinese government’s top diplomat State Councillor Wang Yi said there were two choices when it came to the trade issue.
“The first choice is cooperation and mutual benefit. The other choice is confrontation and mutual loss. China chooses the first,” Wang said. “We hope the U.S. side can also make the same wise choice. Of course, we have also made preparations to respond to the second kind of choice.”
The move toward activating U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods follows negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials centered on increased purchases by Beijing of American farm and energy commodities and cutting the U.S. trade deficit with China.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross this month met Chinese officials in Beijing and brought back a Chinese proposal to buy around $70 billion worth of additional commodities and manufactured goods. But that offer has not been accepted by Trump, people familiar with the matter said.
Wang said a basic consensus reached by the two countries during the recent talks was a pact to use “constructive means” to handle disagreements.
“We hope the U.S. side can meet China halfway and earnestly implement this important consensus, and promote the appropriate resolution of the relevant issue through a win-win and not lose-lose manner,” he said.
“In this process, we hope the U.S. side does not unilaterally take any non-constructive actions, and does not create new obstacles for the next phase of consultations.”
Pompeo said the U.S. deficit with China was still too high, but that they had had good talks.
“I stressed how important it is for President Trump to rectify that situation so that trade becomes more balanced, more reciprocal and more fair, with the opportunity to have American workers be treated fairly. We had good and constructive discussions.”
