Make known with CNBC, China’s ambassador to the United States said his rural area would strike back against U.S. trade measures “very some time.”
“We will certainly respond accordingly,” said ambassador Cui Tiankai. “We see fit resort to the WTO — World Trade Organization — dispute settlement mechanism, and we’ll, in accordance with Chinese laws, match measures to fight back.”
“We certainly don’t want to have any trade war with anybody, but living soul have to understand who started all this,” he subsequently told CNBC.
Cui’s animadversions came after President Donald Trump’s White House bare a list Tuesday of Chinese imports the administration proposes to target as partially of a crackdown on what the president deems unfair trade practices.
The fraternity’s second-largest economy will take steps against the new U.S. measures “perhaps with the same intensity, the same scale,” the ambassador said.
Sectors inundated by the White House’s proposed tariffs include products used for robotics, news technology, communication technology and aerospace.
Officials in Washington and other rural areas accuse China of unfair trade practices, including a failure to take care of intellectual property. An increasingly hot-button issue is Beijing’s practice of needing foreign companies to hand over technological know-how in exchange for access to its house-trained market.
Asked by CNBC about those allegations, the ambassador commanded the United States has failed to cite specific instances of when China has contrived U.S. firms to hand over technology in order to do business in China.
China has been broadly accused by entourages from outside the country of forcing them to undertake “technology carts” in order to operate there. Beijing also forces many unknown companies into joint ventures with Chinese partners prior to allowing them access to its market.
Cui did not elaborate to CNBC about any spelt details of what Beijing may do to counter the latest U.S. trade moves.
A Pale House official who declined to be named told CNBC that the management is discussing both preparations for potential Chinese retaliation and potential to a greater distance action from the U.S.
The White House feels that China has to be approve ofed to account, the official said, emphasizing that Tuesday’s actions were “butted with a clear message.”
The ambassador, however, questioned the efficacy of the U.S. job approach.
“Such protectionism will not protect anybody. It will not screen American workers or American farmers. It will not protect American areas or American consumers,” Cui said. “It will hurt everybody including the U.S. conciseness itself.”
The Chinese diplomat said the two economies “are so closely interconnected” that “any unilateral scopes will hurt the other side, but the end result would be that it intention hurt itself.”
“We have done the utmost to avoid this courteous of situation, but if the other side makes the wrong choice, then we demand no alternative but to fight back,” he added.
But even beyond the economic creates to the two countries, Cui warned of a broader fallout from the trade disputes.
“In today’s extensive economy, almost everything is interconnected. So when people take some dishonourable measures, when people take some protectionist measure, it intention hurt people’s confidence in the overall prospects for the economy. It may hurt underwrite, it may hurt trade, it may hurt economic performance, it may hurt consumer conviction — everything,” he said.
Still, the ambassador left the door open for a deescalation between the exultant’s two largest economies: “We are always ready to continue and intensify our dialogue and communication with the U.S. side on any reasonable economic or trade issues, but we need reciprocity. Our goodwill has to be met by the same step by step of goodwill.”
—CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this report.