The US says the five separate World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement cases are justified under global agreements.
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Europe also is anxious Washington will follow up on a threat to impose punitive levies on imported cars, something the powerful German auto industry particularly fears.
Juncker, speaking at a joint news briefing with Li and Tusk at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, said that move showed “if China wishes to open up it can do so”.
Hebei Dishixiao Gloves Manufacturing Company, which exports hats, scarves and gloves from northern China’s Hebei province – including the ubiquitous red Trump caps – said that its clients in the U.S. would also have to raise their prices to cover the effect of the new tariffs. Beijing says the whole world will retaliate if Washington sticks with its aggressive trade policy.
Political leaders in agricultural states fear volatility in commodity markets as President Donald Trump contemplates additional new tariffs. Like other global government agencies from time to time, it faces issues such as keeping up with changing times, and stifling bureaucracy and inefficiency, compounded by conflicting views among member states. That has got China back threatening more tariffs on the US.
Last week, Tusk lambasted Trump’s criticism of European allies and urged him to remember who his friends are when he met Putin.
It followed the recent complaint that the ministry filed on July 6 to the WTO about the US’ early round of levies on US$34 billion worth of Chinese goods. That was in response to complaints Beijing is hurting American companies by stealing or pressuring enterprises to hand over technology.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced on Monday 16 July that it would be filing WTO cases against Canada, China, the EU, Mexico, and Turkey, after they imposed duties on various US imports following Washington’s own tariffs on imported steel and aluminium.
China, the EU, Mexico, Turkey and Canada responded with tariffs on a combined $28.5 billion worth of US exports.
“We have agreed to say that, in the current worldwide circumstances, it is important to defend multilateralism and free trade, ” declared the Chinese Prime-Minister.
“Only one percent of the goods are consumer goods, and the rest are either capital equipment, such as machines, or intermediate inputs and parts”, she said of the tariff actions against China.
Asked about Kudlow’s comments, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “That the relevant United States official unexpectedly distorted the facts and made bogus accusations is shocking and beyond imagination”.
In an interview with CCTV, Fu Ying, an expert at a think tank under the state-run Academy of Social Sciences, put it thusly: “Since the United States has put the blame and responsibility on China and other countries … the alliance’s most pressing task is to research how to respond to this grim situation”.
“Our summit is not directed at any third party”, said Li.
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More than 500 disputes have been brought to the WTO since 1995, the report said.
