No trade negotiations unless the United States "takes off the gun" from China's head: Beijing

GENEVA: The United States should "pull the torch" at the head of China and start keeping its word for useful discussions on the end of a trade war, said Thursday the Chinese vice minister Trade.

Wang Shouwen, representing China at the World Trade Organization's political review this week, noted that the United States "started the war," which saw increasing threats weighing in on the hundreds billions of dollars.

"We had talks and these talks made good progress but this progress was ignored by one party and this party waged a trade war," Wang told reporters in Geneva.

Asked what conditions would be needed for negotiations on easing the conflict, he said: "For a successful conference, a party must remove the weapon from the head of the 39, other party.

"And for any discussion to be useful, a party must keep its words: if a party continues to chop and change all the time, the discussion would be useless," he added.

Up to now, the two powers have only imposed duties on 34 billion dollars (29 billion euros) of goods.

But Washington Tuesday threatened to target $ 200 billion in additional imports and China immediately promised to retaliate.

Top officials of President Donald Trump's Republican Party condemned the escalation of trade and called for face-to-face talks with Beijing.

Wang called the United States "a tyrant of commerce" and said that Trump's conduct was "contrary to the interests of US companies, American (and) American consumers". Among Washington's many grievances about Chinese trade are accusations that the WTO treats China with too much kindness.

The Trump administration insists that the 164-member body allows China to claim benefits that should be reserved only for the poorest countries in the world and does not punish its other misconduct .

The US envoy to the WTO, Dennis Shea, said yesterday that it was time to "count" on China's membership and that without a radical reform, the WTO would be unable to contain China and would lose its relevance.

Wang retorted today that China was open to reforming the WTO, but did not care about Shea's "alarmist point of view."

"The WTO is not perfect, there are areas where improvements are needed, but I think the statement that the WTO rules are insufficient to to deal with China's problems is a statement of exaggeration, "Wang said.

"If it is necessary to improve the rules, China is happy to discuss with all other WTO members".