China on Monday said that it “firmly opposes” other countries making trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, news agency AFP reported.
The statement comes amid reports that the Donald Trump administration is preparing to pressure other countries to limit trade with China in exchange for tariff exemptions from the United States, according to Reuters.
Beijing warned nations not to seek a deal with the United States that compromised its interests and added that it would take “countermeasures” against such countries.
“Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” a spokesperson for Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement.
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“To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger,” it added, according to AFP.
China also warned nations making trade deals with the United States, saying that such an approach “will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others”.
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“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the spokesperson said. “If such a situation occurs, China will never accept it and will resolutely take reciprocal countermeasures.”
US-China tariff war
While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 per cent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 per cent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 per cent on US goods.
Amid the full-blown trade war between the two major economies, Trump has said that he is reluctant to continue ratcheting up tariffs on China as it could stall trade between the two countries.
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The US president has also claimed that Beijing was repeatedly reaching out to him in a bid to broker a deal.
Beijing, on the other hand, said American tariffs go “against the whole world” and would “seriously damage the rules-based multilateral trading system”
Meanwhile, some countries are now engaging in negotiations with the United States to lower tariffs.
(Inputs from agencies)
