US President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping
Ahead of President Xi Jinping's meeting with his American counterpart Donald Trump this week, China on Monday said that it would not agree to any trade deal with the US at the expense of its sovereignty and both sides should make compromises to break the deadlock over the issue.
Xi and Trump will meet in Osaka, Japan on the sidelines of the G-20 summit on June 28-29.
Trump, who kicked off the trade war last year, is demanding China to reduce the massive trade deficit which climbed to over USD 539 billion last year. He is also insisting on China to workout verifiable measures for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), technology transfer and more access to American goods to Chinese markets.
Both the countries have imposed additional tariffs on billions of dollars worth of their exports to each other.
Trump last week threatened to "immediately" jack up tariffs on the remaining USD 300 billion Chinese exports to the US should President Xi fail to show up at the meeting. The US already has 25 per cent duties on more than USD 250 billion of imports from China.
Trump and Xi held a detailed telephone talk on June 18 preparing the ground to resolve differences impeding the deal to end the year-long trade war between the world's two largest economies.
Addressing the media here ahead of Xi-Trump meeting, China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwe said talks between teams from the US and China are underway to make preparations for the meeting.
Outlining China’s stand for a deal to end the bruising trade war, he said Beijing insists any agreement would be based on mutual respect, which meant respecting the sovereignty, treating each other as equals and win-win outcomes benefitting both the countries.
"Compromises should be made by both sides. It should be a two-way street. China and the US are member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), so the agreement should be keeping in principles of the WTO," he said.
Trump is demanding China to reduce the massive trade deficit which last year climbed to over USD 539 billion.
Special teams from both the sides headed by high-level officials held 11 rounds of talks to end the tariff war.
