Chinese Premier Warns There are No Winners in Trade Wars

No one will gain from a trade war, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday, speaking hours after the United States and China slapped tit-for-tat duties on $34 billion worth of the other’s imports.



“Trade war is never a solution,” Li said at a news briefing with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in Sofia before a summit with 16 central and eastern European countries.

“China would never start a trade war but if any party resorts to an increase of tariffs then China will take measures in response to protect development interests.”

The United States’ deadline for tariffs to take effect passed at 0401 GMT on Friday and shortly after China said it was forced to retaliate, confirming later after some market confusion that it had implemented retaliatory tariffs.

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned the United States may ultimately target over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, or roughly the total amount of U.S. imports from China last year.

Li said no one would emerge a winner from a trade war.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza