By Antoni Slodkowski
BEIJING (Reuters) -China said on Saturday “the market has spoken” in rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and called on Washington for “equal-footed consultation” after global markets plunged in reaction to the trade levies that drew Chinese retaliation.
State-run Xinhua news agency also published the Chinese government’s stance, saying the U.S. should “stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade”.
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan told public broadcaster RTHK, however, Hong Kong would not impose separate countermeasures, citing the need for the city to remain “free and open”.
“The market has spoken,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in a post on Facebook on Saturday. He also posted a picture capturing Friday’s falls on U.S. markets.
Trump introduced additional 34% tariffs on Chinese goods as part of steep levies imposed on most U.S. trade partners, bringing the total duties on China this year to 54%.
Trump also closed a trade loophole that had allowed low-value packages from China to enter the U.S. duty-free.
This prompted retaliation from China on Friday, including extra levies of 34% on all U.S. goods and export curbs on some rare earths, escalating the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Global stock markets plummeted following China’s retaliation and Trump’s comments on Friday that he would not change course, extending sharp losses that followed Trump’s initial tariff announcement earlier in the week and marking the biggest losses since the pandemic. For the week, the S&P 500 was down 9%.
“Now is the time for the U.S. to stop doing the wrong things and resolve the differences with trading partners through equal-footed consultation,” Guo wrote in English on Facebook.
In a separate statement published by state-run Xinhua news agency, the Chinese government urged the U.S.: “Stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade, and stop undermining the legitimate development rights of the Chinese people.”
“China has taken and will continue to take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests,” said the government.
Washington “seriously undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system, and seriously undermines the stability of the global economic order,” it added.
Earlier on Saturday, several industry chambers of commerce ranging from those representing traders in metals and textiles to electronics, issued statements condemning the tariffs.
China’s chamber of commerce, representing traders in food products, called on “China’s food and agricultural products import and export industry to unite and strengthen cooperation to jointly explore domestic and foreign markets”.
Hong Kong’s Chan said it strongly opposes Trump’s actions and would continue to be “free and open”.
“Allowing a free flow of capital and acting as a free port are our advantages, and this will not change,” Chan told public broadcaster RTHK.
“The rules-based multilateral trading system is our core,” he said.
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Qiaoyi Li; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Barbara Lewis)
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