Beijing said on Monday it had “submitted representations” and urged Washington to “correct its wrong methods” after the United States launched new trade investigations last week, and negotiators from both countries met in Paris.
Washington’s trade investigations focus on 60 economies, including China, and will examine “failures to take action on forced labor” and whether this burdens or restricts American trade.
Those investigations came a day after a separate series of U.S. probes focused on industrial overcapacity targeting 16 trading partners, including China, which Beijing’s Foreign Ministry criticized as “political manipulation.”
“We urge the US side to immediately correct its wrong methods, reach a middle ground with China… and resolve problems through dialogue and negotiations,” Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
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The latest round of investigations “is extremely one-sided, arbitrary and discriminatory,” he said, accusing Washington of “trying to build trade barriers.”
Trade officials from both countries met in Paris on Sunday for talks that Washington said would last two days.
China has “submitted representations” to the United States over the latest investigations into the forced labor trade, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.
Human rights groups and United Nations experts have expressed alarm over allegations of forced labor affecting minority groups in China’s western Xinjiang region, which Beijing has dismissed as “fabricated.”
The two sets of trade investigations will likely take months, but could justify new tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs in February.
Washington has said Trump will visit China from March 31 to April 2, although Beijing has not yet confirmed those dates.
Trump told the Financial Times in an interview that the summit could be postponed due to the war in the Middle East.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
