2018年CRI China urges dialogue to tackle trade frictions

（单词翻译）

China has again urged the United States to abandon unilateralism and protectionism, and resort to dialogue and consultation¹ to handle trade disagreements.

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The remarks were made in the wake of the U.S. decision to lengthen² the days for public to comment on its imposed tariffs³ on Chinese goods from 30 days to 60 days.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump⁴ signed a memorandum⁵ that could impose tariffs on up to 50 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China and restrictions⁶ on Chinese investment in the United States.

Gao Feng, spokesman with China's Commerce Ministry⁷, reiterated⁸ on Thursday that China is confident it will be able to react against any form of trade or investment protectionist act.

"China will take all the proper measures to defend our own legitimate⁹ rights and interests. We do not exclude any option."

China's trade with the US was valued at about 580 billion U.S. dollars and accounted for 14.1 percent of China's total foreign trade.

The country's investment in the US is valued at about 7.8 billion U.S. dollars and accounted for 6.5 percent of its total non-financial outbound investment.

Gao warned against unilateral trade measures, saying it could cause a chain reaction of protectionist policies around the world, ultimately hurting the global economy.

"The actions of the US has set a very bad precedent¹⁰. It is a blatant¹¹ violation¹² of WTO (World Trade Organization) rules to impose tariffs on Chinese goods. By doing so, the US has completely put behind the multilateral trade system. It is contemptuous and tramples¹³ on multilateral rules. The bad behaviour of the US may also trigger a chain reaction of trade protectionism, and will cast shadows over the global economy which is under recovery."

China has said it was open to negotiating with Washington over the latest trade issue.

Gao said on Thursday that China was open to negotiations¹⁵, but only if they were "equal", and never under "unilateral threat and intimidation¹⁶".

"China's door of negotiation¹⁴ and discussion is always open, but I want emphasise¹⁷ that we have principles for the negotiation. First of all, actions of unilateralism and trade protectionism must be abandoned. Secondly¹⁸, negotiations must be equal. China will never conduct any kind of negotiations under unilateral threats and intimidation. The negotiations also have to be constructive¹⁹ and balanced and both sides must make joint²⁰ efforts."