Deterioration of relations between the United States and China connected with trade wars and situation around Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei could entail risks for Russian economy, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov said on Friday
INNOPOLIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2019) Deterioration of relations between the United States and China connected with trade wars and situation around Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei could entail risks for Russian economy, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov said on Friday.
Last week, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order adding Huawei, which has been accused of working Chinese national spy agencies, and its 70 affiliates to a trade blacklist, thereby restricting its activity in the country. US companies are required to receive permission for trading with the Chinese firm. As a result, Google had to suspend business operations with Huawei, including the transfer of hardware, software and technical services, except those publicly available via open source licensing.
"This will affect the global economic growth rate, and we greatly depend on it, because if the Chinese economy slows down, the demand for hydrocarbons and other commodities will also slow down. This will hit Russian exports," Akimov said on the sidelines of the annual conference Digital Industry of Industrial Russia that was held from May 22-24 in the Russian high-tech hub Innopolis.
According to Akimov, the resent situation with Huawei is a result of a technological war between Beijing and Washington, which is going against the background of the countries' trade dispute that started last June. The deputy prime minister said that escalation of the conflict in the technological sphere would affect global economy and could even lead to technological fragmentation of the world.
In June 2018, Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports in a bid to balance the trade deficit. Since then the sides have exchanged several rounds of duties. On May 10, Washington raised tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent due to the impasse of trade talks. Beijing retaliated by announcing tariff hikes of up to 25 percent on $60 billion worth of US imports starting in June.
