No one will gain from a trade war, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday, speaking hours after the United States and China slapped tit-for-tat duties on $34 billion worth of the other’s imports.
“Trade war is never a solution,” Li said at a news briefing with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in Sofia before a summit with 16 central and eastern European countries.
“China would never start a trade war but if any party resorts to an increase of tariffs then China will take measures in response to protect development interests.”
The United States’ deadline for tariffs to take effect passed at 0401 GMT on Friday and shortly after China said it was forced to retaliate, confirming later after some market confusion that it had implemented retaliatory tariffs.
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned the United States may ultimately target over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, or roughly the total amount of U.S. imports from China last year.
Li said no one would emerge a winner from a trade war.
via Reuters
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.