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CHINA blasted the United States today for seriously undermining the deal reached during recent trade talks between the two countries in Geneva.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce accused the US of repeatedly imposing discriminatory and restrictive measures against China, including issuing AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and planning to revoke Chinese student visas.
The ministry said that “these practices seriously violate the consensus” reached during trade discussions in Geneva last month.
The comments by the ministry referred to a China-US joint statement in which both sides agreed to slash their massive recent tariffs, and to restart stalled trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
But last month’s de-escalation of President Donald Trump’s trade wars did nothing to resolve the ongoing attempts by the US to undermine China.
The deal was to last for 90 days, creating time for US and Chinese negotiators to reach a more substantive agreement.
But the pause also leaves tariffs higher than before Mr Trump started ramping them up last month.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said the US agreed to drop the 145 per cent tax Mr Trump imposed last month to 30 per cent. China agreed to lower its tariff rate on US goods to 10 per cent from 125 per cent.
The Commerce Ministry said China held up its end of the deal, cancelling or suspending tariffs and non-tariff measures taken against the US’s “reciprocal tariffs” following the agreement.
“The US has unilaterally provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations,” while China has stood by its commitments, the statement said.
China will “continue to take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
Mr Trump stirred further controversy on Friday, saying he will no longer be nice with China on trade, declaring in a social media post that the country had broken an agreement with the US.
Hours later, Mr Trump said in the Oval Office that he will speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping and “hopefully we’ll work that out,” while still insisting China had violated the agreement.
“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, has totally violated its agreement with us,” Mr Trump posted.
Responding to those comments the Chinese Commerce Ministry said: “Instead of reflecting on itself, it has turned the tables and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts.”