Washington's trade restrictions harmful, China tells US

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Urging a review of its policies, Beijing on Friday again conveyed to Washington that the US restrictions on Chinese firms have harmed the businesses.

“The US adopts a series of trade and investment restrictive measures and protectionist practices against China, which have harmed the interests of businesses and people on both sides,” Chinese Minister for Commerce Wang Wentao told Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council.

The two sides held a video call to discuss the bilateral trade issues, a statement by the Commerce Ministry of China said.

Referring to the summit-level meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden in Indonesia last November, Wang said China hopes that the US side “will take a correct view of the opportunities that China's development brings to the US and the world.”

Wang said the two sides should “follow the direction specified by the two heads of state to push China-US economic and trade relations back on track at an early date.”

The Chinese side, Wang told Allen, “is willing to work with relevant departments of the US ... (to) seek common ground while reserving differences, conduct rational, pragmatic and professional communication, and promote cooperation in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation (to) inject positive impetus into bilateral relations.”

The US has imposed restrictive measures on several Chinese firms, preventing them from doing business with American entities, essentially in the critical high-tech sector.

The bilateral relations, which dwindled during former President Donald Trump’s era, have seen little progress under the Biden administration despite highest-level contacts in Bali, Indonesia on the sidelines of the G20.

Janet Yellen, the US treasury secretary, had also met Chinese Central Bank Governor Yi Gang in Bali after the Xi-Biden summit where the duo discussed global macroeconomic and financial challenges, including the economic prospects between the two countries.

Amid changing geo-political scenarios in the wider Asia-Pacific, Washington has been working to shift dependence on Chinese supply lines with Yellen calling for a “need” to “mitigate” vulnerabilities of “countries like China.”

The Biden administration has been “outspoken about the need to reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains” and “counter Beijing's bad behavior in the global economy,” Yellen had told an event hosted by the Bretton Woods Committee.

In the latest trade data released by Beijing on Friday, China’s trade surplus was $78.01 billion in December compared to $69.84 billion in November.

The data showed China’s trade with the EU and the US declined sharply in December by 19.51% year-on-year, while US imports declined by 7.12%.

According to the economy monitor Statista, the US trade in goods with China “amounted to around $657 billion, composed of a $151 billion export value and a $506 billion import value.”