He Yadong, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce of China commented on the Trump memorandum on February 20, in which he demands that the applicable ministries set "equivalent tariffs" with each abroad trading partner.
China is profoundly afraid about this," said He Tadong. Based on each country's own resources and assets, global trade effectively promotes global economical improvement and increases people's welfare in all countries. The United States considers that they have suffered losses in global trade and want to rise duties on all their trading partners through alleged ‘equivalent tariffs’. This practice not only violates WTO rules, but besides ignores the results of the balance of interest achieved in the negotiations of the multilateral trading strategy of the past almost 80 years, as well as the fact that the United States has long benefited from global trade. This is typical uniteraryism and protectionism.
There is no way out for protectionism and there will be no triumph in the customs war. The United States should correct its incorrect practices and work with another countries to find a solution through equal consultation," said the spokesperson.
