China warned on Tuesday that “no one will win a trade war” after US President-elect Donald Trump promised to substantially increase customs duties on goods particularly from China.
These economic measures from the Republican tycoon, which he promised to put in place after his inauguration in January, also target Canada and Mexico. He justifies these decisions by the crises linked to opiates and immigration.
“China believes that trade and economic cooperation between China and the United States is mutually beneficial in nature,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States.
Donald Trump wants to tackle drug imports
In a message published on his Truth Social network, Donald Trump announced an increase in customs taxes of 10%, which is added to those already existing and to those additional that he could still decide, on “all the numerous products arriving from China to the United States.
He explained that he had often raised the problem of the influx of drugs, particularly fentanyl, one of the main culprits of the opiate crisis in the United States, with Chinese leaders who promised to punish the “traffickers”. “But they never got to the end of things,” he said.
China says it is open to “maintaining dialogue”
Asked Tuesday whether Beijing was in contact with Donald Trump’s team, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, declined to comment. “But in principle, we are open to maintaining dialogue and communication,” she stressed during a regular press conference.
The United States has long criticized China for not doing enough to combat the illegal production and export of components of fentanyl – a synthetic drug responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans each year.
The Chinese embassy in the United States strongly denounced this view of things and detailed the measures taken by Beijing to prevent any illegal trade in these substances. “All these elements prove that the idea that China knowingly allowed the entry of fentanyl precursors into the United States is completely contrary to facts and reality,” Liu Pengyu said in his statement.
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