China said Thursday that it hoped to the meet the U.S. “halfway” on a trade deal and warned of potential retaliation if the U.S. followed through with its threats to hike tariffs on Chinese goods to 25% across the board by midnight Thursday.
“We hope the U.S. can meet China halfway, take care of each others’ concerns, and resolve existing problems through cooperation and consultations,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng told reporters in Beijing.
Gao added: “China’s attitude has been consistent and China will not succumb to any pressure. China has made preparations to respond to all kinds of possible outcomes.” He did not say how it would respond.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C., Thursday afternoon to continue trade talks between the countries. They have just hours before the administration raises existing tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25% across the board, up from 10% in most cases and adds 25% tariffs to an additional $325 billion in additional goods.
The White House has accused China of attempting to renege on items previously agreed to in the trade talks and threatened to enact the higher tariffs if it doesn’t agree to the restore the concessions. Gao said Beijing did not appreciate the administration’s accusations.
“The U.S. side has given many labels recently, ‘backtracking’, ‘betraying,’ etc. … China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed,” he said.
President Trump said earlier Thursday he was fine with walking away from the talks if necessary, claiming that from his perspective hiking tariffs was just as good of an outcome.
“Our alternative is an excellent one. It is an alternative I have spoken about for years. We’ll take in well over $100 billion a year,” he said.
[Opinion: What does a US-China trade deal look like?]
