China’s President Xi Jinping (C) sits with members of the Chinese delegation during a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump (Not Pictured) at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, April 7, 2017.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
BEIJING — China is willing to calmly resolve the trade dispute with the United States and is against any further escalation in tensions, Gao Feng, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, said Thursday.
“We firmly reject an escalation of the trade war, and are willing to negotiate and collaborate in order to solve this problem with a calm attitude,” Gao said, according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks. He noted that the Chinese and U.S. trade delegations have maintained “effective” communication.
But he did not confirm a claim from President Donald Trump on Monday which said the Chinese team had called the U.S. over the weekend with the desire of reaching a deal soon. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously said it is unaware of the call that Trump described.
Tensions between the world’s two-largest economies escalated late last week and into the weekend with each country announcing plans to increase tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of goods from the other.
“At present, there have been quite a lot of all kinds of sayings. In the area of economics and trade, we will clarify the facts and let everyone understand the truth,” Gao said. He declined to confirm whether Trump’s comments counted among such sayings.
The last publicly known high-level call between both delegations was on August 13. The Ministry of Commerce said at the time in a statement that a similar call was planned within two weeks. The two sides were also expected to meet face-to-face in September.
However, after the latest escalation it is still not clear how close the U.S. and China are to taking another step forward in negotiations. When asked Thursday about whether the two sides will meet in September, Gao said both are discussing the matter.
