After the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced a proposed tariff list on 1,300 Chinese products under the Section 301 investigation, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Chinese embassy in the US made a series of announcements and statements opposing US unilateralist and protectionist tariff proposals on Wednesday.

File photo: Ministry of Commerce (VCG Photo)

China firmly opposes US proposed tariff：MOC

China firmly opposes the newly-unveiled USTR proposed tariff list under 301 investigation, and will adopt same scale of countermeasures on US exports, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced Wednesday morning. 

The statement followed what the US government proposed to slap a suggested upgraded tariff of 25 percent on Chinese imports of up to 50 billion USD.

"Disregarding strong representations by China, the United States announced tariff proposals that are completely unfounded, a typical unilateralist and protectionist practice that China strongly condemns and firmly opposes," MOC responded.

The additional tariffs the US made put the mutually-beneficial and win-win nature of the China-US trade and economic cooperation in peril and hurt the communities of Chinese and American business and the interests of consumers, the statement stressed.

The reckless move impaired the interests of China, the United States and the world, and reneged on the basic principles and spirit of the World Trade Organization (WTO), it condemned.

China condemns and opposes US unilateralist and protectionist tariff proposals: MFA

China plans to immediately bring relevant US practice to the dispute settlement body of the WTO, and is ready to fight back with equal force and scale that will be released in the coming days.

The United States tariff proposals are "typical unilateralist and protectionist actions", which have no basis in fact and China strongly condemns and firmly opposes such actions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Wednesday.

The US ignores the essence of economic and trade cooperation between China and the US, which has lasted 40 years. The voices of the two countries' industries and the interests of consumers are neglected by such actions. It is detrimental to the national interests of the US. Also, it is not conducive to China's national interests, as well as global interest, said Lu Kang.

The US has seriously violated the basic principles and spirit of the WTO, and China will immediately rectify the wrongdoing using the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. At the same time, according to the "Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China", China will prepare reciprocal measures towards the US at the same scale. These measures will be announced in the near future. China has confidence and is capable of responding to any protectionist action from the US, said Lu Kang.

Chinese Embassy issues statement condemning new US-imposed tariffs

China's embassy in the US responded with a statement that said "reciprocation" was on its way:

The Chinese side strongly condemns and firmly opposes the unfounded Section 301 investigation and the proposed list of products and tariff increases based on the investigation.

Such unilateralistic and protectionist action has gravely violated fundamental principles and values of the WTO. It serves neither China’s interest, nor US interest, even less the interest of the global economy.

As the Chinese saying goes, it is only polite to reciprocate. The Chinese side will resort to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and take corresponding measures of equal scale and strength against US products in accordance with Chinese law.

We hope that the US side, with sense and long-term picture in mind, refrain from going further down the wrong path.