The spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States assured that “no one will win a trade or tariff war” after the elected president of the North American country, donald trumppromised 10% additional duties on Chinese products as soon as he takes power in January 2025.
“China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial by nature. No one will win a trade or tariff war,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese legation in Washington, on his official account on the X social network.
Trump announced on his platform, Truth Social, that he will impose additional 10% tariffs on all products from China until that country stops the arrival of fentanyl to the United Statesbelonging to the category of synthetic opioids, which cause more than 150 overdose deaths every day in the United States.
“I have had many conversations with China about the enormous quantities of drugs, particularly fentanyl, being sent to the United States, but to no avail,” wrote the winner of the recent presidential election.
“Representatives from China told me that they would impose their maximum penalty, death, on drug traffickers caught doing so (sending fentanyl to the US) but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are coming to our countrymainly through Mexico, at levels never seen before,” Trump said.
China’s response
In response, Liu asserted that “the idea that China deliberately allows fentanyl precursors (chemicals) to flow into the United States is completely against facts and reality.”
In response to Trump’s complaint, the Chinese diplomatic spokesperson stressed that The anti-narcotics agencies of China and the United States “have resumed regular communications” since the meeting between the presidents of both countries, Xi Jinping and Joe Bidenin San Francisco in November of last year.
“China has notified the US of progress made in US-related law enforcement operations against narcotics. China has responded to US requests to verify evidence in some cases and has taken action,” Liu added.
As an electoral candidate, the New York magnate stressed his intention to save jobs in the United States by imposing tariffs of up to 20% on all imported products and 60% for those from China, a country against which he started the trade war in 2018, during his first presidential term.