GETTING BACK ON “CORRECT TRACK”
Recent tariff hikes targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods came weeks before November’s US presidential election, with both Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies.
US President Joe Biden has largely maintained tariffs imposed by former president Donald Trump, which impacted some US$300 billion in goods from China. The hikes this year affect earlier products and added ones.
The United States defends its restrictions on sensitive high-tech goods as aimed at limiting Chinese companies’ access to cutting-edge equipment purchased abroad, particularly for military purposes.
China has condemned those curbs as “protectionist”.
And on Tuesday, Wang said trade ties between the world’s two largest economies “should become the ballast of bilateral relations”.
Beijing, he said, was willing to push “China-US economic and trade relations back on the correct track”.
The US Commerce Department noted that both sides have “agreed to maintain an open channel of communication in the coming months”.
