China Ratchets Up Rhetoric, Vowing Action Against US Tariffs

Eva Dou

The Wall Street Journal

Biography
@evadou

March 22, 2018 7:37 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s government criticized the U.S.’s planned punitive actions on Chinese exports and investment, warning that it will take “all necessary measures” to respond and decrying Washington’s approach to the countries’ trade disputes.

China’s commerce and foreign ministries separately registered Beijing’s displeasure Thursday ahead of the Trump administration’s planned announcement of tariffs and other measures later in the day.

“China absolutely won’t sit back and allow its legitimate rights and interests to be harmed and will take all necessary measures to protect” them, a Commerce Ministry statement said. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman criticized the White House’s rhetoric, particularly the labeling of Chinese trade practices as “economic aggression,” calling such remarks “irresponsible.”

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Beijing plans to impose tariffs on U.S. farm exporters who count on the Chinese market.

U.S. exports to China as a share of

all U.S. exports, by product*

100

Grain sorghum

$837 million

Soybeans

$12.4 billion

Live swine

$10.1 million

2017 U.S.

exports

to China

2013

’14

’15

’16

’17

*By value Source: U.S. Census Bureau

China Ratchets Up Rhetoric, Vowing Action Against U.S. Tariffs

The high-volume rhetoric reflects rising tensions, despite officials on both sides calling for restraint.

The Trump administration has said the planned policies against China are punishment for decades of intellectual-property theft and pressure on U.S. businesses to hand over technology.

Beijing denies forcing foreign companies to transfer technology. It is readying retaliatory tariffs against U.S. exports of soybeans, sorghum and live hogs, targeting products from Farm Belt states that supported President Donald Trump, according to people with knowledge of the policies. But Beijing’s response would be calibrated to minimize escalation, the people said.

“Upholding economic stability serves the interests of the two sides,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a routine media briefing.

Still, Ms. Hua denounced the logic and language the Trump administration was applying. She criticized Washington for blocking Chinese purchases of high-technology and took issue with calls by U.S. officials for “reciprocity” in access to each other’s markets.

“Everybody knows that when it comes to trade, absolute reciprocity is not possible,” Ms. Hua said. “The U.S. on the one hand requires China to buy its products. On the other hand, it refuses to allow China to buy what it wants to buy from the U.S. Is this fair?”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying denounced the logic and language the Trump administration was applying to China. Photo: Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

A World Trade Organization ruling on Wednesday further fueled tensions. In the ruling, the global trade body largely sided with China’s complaint against the U.S. for slapping tariffs on Chinese solar panels, kitchen shelves and other products.

The trade body said that the U.S., under Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, didn’t properly calculate the prices to prove Chinese goods were being exported at unfairly low prices, and that it failed to adequately prove the existence of government subsidy programs in some cases.

China’s Commerce Ministry trumpeted the ruling, calling the U.S. a repeat trade offender and portraying Beijing as a defender of the global trade order. The U.S. had “severely harmed the fairness and impartiality of the international trade environment,” the ministry said.

Among members of the Trump administration, the unfavorable WTO ruling is likely to strengthen convictions that the trade body can’t protect U.S. interests and that unilateral action is warranted. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told members of Congress on Wednesday that the WTO has proven “wholly inadequate” in dealing with China’s state-driven economy.

The WTO ruling rejected some of China’s arguments, agreeing with the U.S. that China’s government “meaningfully controls” some state-owned companies that Beijing argued operated independently.

—Liyan Qi and Charles Hutzler contributed to this article.

Write to Eva Dou at eva.dou@wsj.com

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