US-Chinese Trade War To Hit Washington As LNG Exporter To China - Commerce Ministry

 US-Chinese Trade War to Hit Washington as LNG Exporter to China - Commerce Ministry

The US-Chinese trade war will have a negative impact on the United States, which is exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said on Tuesday

BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2018) The US-Chinese trade war will have a negative impact on the United States, which is exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said on Tuesday.

"The United States is an important LNG exporter to China but because of the restrictive trade measures taken by the US party China had to adopt the similar measures. And that can really have an impact on the United States as a key LNG exporter to China," Wang said at a press briefing.

He pointed out that Australia had also become an important LNG exporter to China.

"China is a very big market that is opening to the rest of the world. If there was no trade war [with the United States], China would provide all the LNG exporters with equal rights on our market," Wang noted.

The Chinese official said that the resumption of trade negotiations between Beijing and Washington depended on the further steps of the United States.

"The resumption of the Chinese-US high-level trade negotiations fully depends on the US side. We believe that the trade differences should be settled through negotiations. But there should be equality and mutual respect in order to make the negotiations effective," Wang said.

He stressed that China and the United States had already held four rounds of trade consultations at the high level, which were not useless from the official's point of view.

"During the consultations many consensuses have been reached. The parties even issued a joint statement but the US side diverged from it and resorted to the restrictive trade measures. That is why it is impossible to hold such talks," Wang added.

The US-Chinese relations have been tense since March, when US President Donald Trump announced imposing tariffs on imported Chinese steel and aluminum. Since then, the two sides have imposed several rounds of exchange duties on each other. On Saturday, Beijing decided to withdraw from trade talks with Washington, following recent sanctions that the United States imposed against the Chinese Defense Ministry and the Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport in connection to the deals on the purchase of the Russian aircraft and S-400 missile systems.