China hopes to ‘properly manage differences’ with US on trade.

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President of the United States Donald Trump He met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan on June 29, 2019.

Kevin Lemarque Reuters

BEIJING – China has stressed its willingness to negotiate as new tariffs on U.S. goods may soon materialize.

US President Donald Trump said this week that he may increase tariffs on Chinese goods by 10% on February 1. The White House announced on Monday. He plans to investigate China on actions harmful to American trade

China’s Ministry of Commerce will always maintain contact with “relevant” US officials on economy and trade, ministry spokesman He Yadong responded on Thursday.

“The Chinese side hopes that the strategic leadership of the leaders of the two countries … will strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote the stable and healthy development of China-US economic and trade relations,” he added during a weekly press conference. This is according to CNBC’s translation of the comments in Mandarin.

Trump said he had a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week about TikTok and trade. While the Chinese side did not mention the social media app in the reading, Xi called for cooperation and said the economic relationship between the two countries is mutually beneficial.

“Tariffs are not good for China or the US or the whole world,” a trade spokesman said.

“China is willing to work with the US to move bilateral economic and trade relations to a stable, healthy and sustainable direction,” the Prime Minister said, pointing out that this is based on “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.”

The comments echoed those of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning on Tuesday.

“We are ready to maintain relations with the US, properly handle differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and build sustainable, healthy and sustainable China-US relations,” Mao said when asked about negotiations on tariffs.

“China will strictly protect its own interests,” she said. It is based on the official English language transcript.

Even if the 10% tariff is imposed on China, it is far less than the original 60% that Trump floated during the campaign.

Hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump reiterated his plan to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada without specifying China. Beijing-based ByteDance said the additional actions could be used to force the sale of social media app TikTok, whose future presence in the US is now in question.

When asked about Tik Tok on Thursday, a Chinese trade spokesman said China “hopes the US side will listen more to businesses and people’s voices” and will “do many things that are beneficial to economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States.” and public safety.