China, US maintain contacts ahead of talks in Washington
China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng speaks to the media during a news conference at the commerce ministry in Beijing Thursday.
China and the United States are maintaining close contact to pursue positive progress in the 13th round of high-level economic and trade consultations scheduled for October in Washington, an official said Thursday.
Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said at a press conference that China’s standpoint on the consultations remains unswerving and expressed hope that both sides will meet each other halfway to seek mutual benefit and win-win results through consultations on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
China and the United States held vice ministerial-level trade talks in Washington between September 19 and 20 and conducted constructive discussions on economic and trade issues of mutual concern. The two sides also carefully discussed the specific arrangement for the 13th round of China-US high-level economic and trade consultations.
Gao said that Chinese firms have recently inquired with US suppliers and purchased US agricultural products. These firms have purchased a considerable amount of soybeans and pork, and the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council will exclude the purchases from the additional tariffs.
“China has great market demand for high-quality US farm products and has high complementarity with the United States in the field of agriculture,” Gao said, expecting the two sides to make joint efforts and take concrete actions to create favorable conditions for bilateral cooperation.
Earlier in September, China said high-profile US agricultural products including pork and soybeans would be exempt from added tariffs, ahead of the next round of trade talks scheduled for October.
It marked easing tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
Gao said China welcomes the US decision to release lists on exempting additional tariffs on Chinese products, adding that the move benefits both US firms and consumers as well as Chinese firms and will create good conditions for the consultations.
American farmers have borne the brunt of the US-China trade spat, especially after US soy exports collapsed last year.
Gao also said China is still going through internal procedures for rolling out a much-anticipated “unreliable entity list,” which will be used for punishing companies that have undermined China’s national interests.
Gao said the goal of the list is to protect fair competition, and “not to target any country’s companies, organizations or individuals.”
“We welcome companies from all countries in the world, including the US, to invest and do business in China,” he said.
