CHINA on Wednesday expressed regrets over the planned measures by the United States to raise tariffs on imported Chinese products, saying escalating trade frictions is against the interests of the two peoples as well as people of the world.

“China deeply regrets this, and will be forced to take necessary countermeasures if the U.S. side puts the tariff measures into effect,” says a statement released Wednesday.

U.S. soy farmers have urged Washington to work for a positive solution to the current tariff dispute with the world’s top oilseed buyer China and avoid further escalation of trade tensions. In a statement released late Tuesday, the American Soybean Association (ASA) described the threat by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to increase the tariff rate from 10 percent to 25 percent on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods as the “worst case” for U.S. soybean growers.

“This is a predicament for soy growers,” said Davie Stephens, ASA president and a soybean farmer from Kentucky.

“With depressed [soybean] prices and unsold stocks forecast to double before the 2019 harvest begins in September, we need the China market reopened to U.S. soybean exports within weeks, not months or longer,” he added.

In the statement, the ASA urged Washington to hold off on additional tariffs and rapidly conclude negotiations with China, including lifting the existing Section 301 tariffs in exchange for China removing its retaliatory 25-percent tariff on U.S. soybeans.

Nicole M. Kaeding, vice president of federal and special projects at the Tax Foundation based in Washington, said that if the Trump administration follows through on the president’s threat, it’s American taxpayers, not Chinese taxpayers, who will pay the price — through higher prices and fewer job opportunities.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice of the tech sector, also warned against an increase in tariffs.

“Increasing tariffs would only continue to harm American consumers and businesses of all sizes and across all sectors, as well as threaten American economic growth and leadership in innovation,” said Naomi Wilson, ITI’s senior director of policy in Asia.

The U.S. chemicals manufacturers also called for sensible trade-policy solutions.

China supplies the U.S. with several chemicals that are not available anywhere else and are critical inputs to U.S. manufacturing. China is also the third-largest export market for U.S. chemicals manufacturers, according to Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

(SD-Xinhua)

“We are starting to see signs that the tariffs are disrupting supply chains, cutting off markets and eroding US chemical-manufacturing competitiveness,” Dooley said Monday.

Several organizations, including Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, which is the national campaign composed of more than 150 of America’s largest trade organizations in retail, technology, manufacturing and agriculture, have in recent days highlighted the negative impact of tariff increases on the U.S. economy and job market.

They cited a February report from Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC as saying that increasing tariffs on US$200 billion of goods to 25 percent, coupled with tariffs already in place, and retaliation, would reduce U.S. employment by more than 934,000 jobs, cost the average family of four US$767 and reduce US GDP by 0.37 percent.

(Xinhua)