Trump tariff hike will leave no party unscathed: China Daily editorial

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China firmly deplores and opposes the move by the United States to impose additional tariffs on all Chinese imports, and it will take "necessary countermeasures" to defend its legitimate rights and interests.

The remarks by a ministry spokesperson on Sunday came after the US decided on Saturday to impose a 10-percent tariff on goods imported from China. The White House said the 10-percent tariff is on all imports from China and on top of existing tariffs. The tariff hike will come into effect on Tuesday.

The US side cited the fentanyl issue in the US as the justification for the move. But as the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said this is just a pretext. "The additional tariffs are not constructive and will only harm the counternarcotics cooperation between the two sides in the future."

As the spokesperson pointed out, China has conducted counternarcotics cooperation with the US side in a broad-based way. At the request of the US, China officially put all fentanyl-related substances under control on humanitarian grounds in 2019, making it the first country in the world to do so. The move played a vital role in preventing the illicit manufacturing, trafficking and abuse of these substances and has won full recognition from the international community including the US.

The US administration should objectively and rationally view the country's fentanyl crisis, which is a domestically driven problem for the US.

The tariff hike also severely violates World Trade Organization rules, and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement released on Sunday that China will file a lawsuit with the WTO regarding the wrongful practices of the US in imposing tariffs on Chinese goods. It also stated that China will take corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests.

China has repeatedly stated that there is no winner in a trade war or tariff war, but it has been left with no choice but to respond to the US move. It will only be a matter of time before Beijing unveils its countermeasures toward the latest tariff move of the US side.

The tariff hike will not contribute to resolving the issues plaguing the US. Economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics have predicted that the tariff hikes imposed on imports from Canada, Mexico and China will be passed on to consumers, resulting in higher prices for a wide range of goods. It is especially so with Chinese imports, as the US cannot find alternatives of huge amounts of Chinese imports that stretch widely across the US' consumer markets and industries.

Despite the protectionist measures the US has taken against China over these years, the trade volume between China and the US still hit $688.28 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 3.7 percent. It speaks volumes of the mutual benefit the two countries gain from the trade and economic cooperation.

The US tariff hikes only harm the economic and trade cooperation between the world's two largest economies. A review of the series of protectionist measures the US has initiated against China since the first Trump administration launched its trade war against China, clearly indicates tariff measures are not conducive to the interests of either side, nor to the rest of the world.

Beijing urges Washington to correct its wrong practices, maintain the hard-won momentum of China-US drug control cooperation, and promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations.

Economic and trade relations between China and the US have been and should continue to be of a win-win nature. The two economies have strong structural complementarity and their links are crucial parts of the global industry and supply chains. The Trump administration has said that the two countries have a shared responsibility to work together to resolve some common challenges faced by the world, that should include the well-being of the global economy.

The two sides, as agreed by the two heads of state in their exchanges last month, recognize it is natural for countries to have divergences and disputes with each other, but they should seek to resolve them through appropriate means in a responsible way. Beijing therefore urges the US to meet China halfway, face the problems that have emerged, have frank dialogues, strengthen cooperation, and manage differences on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

That's what they should do to prove the Sino-US relations have a new beginning rather than returning to the old trail that will only take a heavy toll on the mutually beneficial relations between the two countries.