China to Lay out Trade-Talk Position on Sunday in Beijing
The document will be released at 10 a.m. on Sunday and then Wang Shouwen, Vice Commerce Minister, will take questions from press.
(Bloomberg) -- China said it will lay out its position on trade talks with the U.S. in a white paper and hold a rare press conference on the issue on Sunday, an announcement that came hours after it implemented retaliatory tariff increases against the U.S.
The document will be released at 10 a.m. on Sunday and then Wang Shouwen, Vice Commerce Minister, will take questions from the press, according to a statement by the State Council of Information Office. The release comes after China’s retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. officially kicked in Saturday in Beijing, affecting more than 2,400 goods that face levies of up to 25%, compared with the previous charges of 10%.
On Friday, China, the world’s second-largest economy, said it will establish a list of "unreliable" entities that harm the interests of domestic companies, which could affect foreign enterprises as trade tensions escalate. The announcement follows a ban imposed by the Trump administration on business with China’s telecom giant Huawei. Bloomberg reported on Friday that Beijing has a plan to restrict exports of rare earths to the U.S. if it needs to.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Commerce outlined four factors it said would go into deciding whether to place a foreign entity on the “unreliable” list, including whether such entities had discriminated against Chinese through a blockade or supply cut, Xinhua reported.
Markets have been roiled by the threats and rhetoric on trade, with the S&P 500 having its worst month of May in seven years. Investors are now looking to a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of the month at the G20 Summit in Osaka for a possible rapprochement and easing of trade tensions.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Claire Che in Beijing at yche16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sofia Horta e Costa at shortaecosta@bloomberg.net, Stanley James, Ros Krasny
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With assistance from Bloomberg