China's Xi says 'no winner' in any trade war

JOHANNESBURG: China’s President Xi Jinping addresses delegates at a Business Forum organised during the 10th BRICS (acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit yesterday at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. —AFP

STOCKHOLM: The EU is mulling tit-for-tat tariffs of around $20 billion on US products if Washington goes ahead with its threat of new tolls on European cars, the bloc's trade commissioner said yesterday.

"We hope that this won't happen and that we can reach a solution. If not, then the European Commission will prepare a long list on American goods. It would amount to around $20 billion," Cecilia Malmstrom told the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN). She said the US goods would include machinery, agricultural and high-tech products, among others.

Her comments came as US President Donald Trump was set to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the US capital for talks over a festering trade dispute between the two key economies.

Trump, who has threatened to impose tariffs on European autos and auto parts, said it was his tough stance that brought the European leader to the bargaining table.

Juncker, who reiterated that Brussels would retaliate if Trump goes through with the measures, told German public broadcaster ZDF yesterday that the EU is "not in the dock-we don't need to defend ourselves." "We don't know any other strategy than dialogue," said Malmstrom, who is currently in Washington with Juncker.

"We will explain that the EU is not a foe but a friend and an ally. We and the US share same view that the World Trade Organization must modernize," she told DN.

Trump is facing increasing criticism as consumers, farmers and businesses are taking a hit from the retaliation to the raft of US tariffs on steel, aluminum, and tens of billions of dollars in products from China that he has imposed in recent weeks.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse, a frequent Trump critic, said the president's trade policies recalled a past of perilous economic instability.

Meanwhile, China's President Xi Jinping yesterday said that there would be "no winner" in any global trade war, in a direct warning to US President Donald Trump who has threatened to slap levies on all Chinese imports. "A trade war should be rejected because there will be no winner," Xi said at the opening of a BRICS summit of emerging economies in Johannesburg.

"Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime," he said, without mentioning the United States by name.

"We are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening up and closed-door policy and between mutual benefit and a beggar-thy-neighbor approach.

"The international community has again reached a new crossroads." Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa-are holding an annual three-day summit with attention focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war.

US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation. - AFP