BEIJING, Sept 25 (Agencies): China said on Tuesday it was impossible to hold trade talks with the United States while Washington is imposing tariffs that are like "holding a knife to someone's throat". Speaking a day after Washington activated tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen said China is open to negotiations but that the two sides must treat each other "equally and with respect".
"Now that the US has adopted this type of large-scale trade restrictions, they're holding a knife to someone's throat. Under these circumstances, how can negotiations proceed?" Wang told a news conference. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had invited Chinese officials to hold new talks, but President Donald Trump's latest tariffs salvo appear to have scuttled that effort.
Wang met US officials in Washington in August but there have been no high-level meetings for months.
Wang said on Tuesday the US measures "have made it impossible for the negotiations to proceed".
Another report adds: A full-blown trade war would have serious effects on global economic growth and there would be no winners of such a scenario, the director-general (DG) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Roberto Azevedo, said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a Berlin industry event against the backdrop of growing trade tensions between China and the United States, Azevedo said: "The warning lights are flashing. A continued escalation of tensions would pose an increased threat to stability, to jobs and to the kind of growth that we are seeing today."
A full-blown global trade war with a breakdown in international trade cooperation would reduce global trade growth by around 70 per cent and GDP growth by 1.9 per cent, Azevedo said.
"There would be no winners from such a scenario and every region would be affected," Azevedo said. The European Union itself would have about 1.7 per cent taken off its GDP growth, he said, adding: "Clearly, we cannot let this happen." Azevedo pointed to several reform proposals that addressed trade-distorting practices and the WTO's existing mechanisms to resolve trade disputes, adding that members had to agree on which reforms they wanted to focus on.
"Clearly, this informed debate is gaining significant momentum and that is positive," Azevedo said, adding the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in November would be crucial to agree on the next steps to safeguard the rules-based free trade order. "Of course, the system can be better, in fact it must be better. But it's nonetheless vital. So while we work to improve it and ensure that it's more responsible to evolving economic needs, we must also preserve what we have - and I count on your support to that end," he said.
