China's Guo Weimin, spokesman for the Chinese political advisory council, pointed out Saturday that "cooperation" between the United States and his own nation, China, is key in ending the trade war and finally move forward.
The senior official has assured that representatives from both countries are focusing on reaching a "win-win agreement" that will be beneficial to all concerned. Guo also said that cementing a trade deal will not only pose advantages for both nations but will also bode well for the "world economy."
Guo had declared this at the outset of Sunday's consultative conference, which is an annual meeting of China's ceremonial advisory group. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was assembled after the United States had made a move to suspend the increase on tariffs placed on imports from China.
The U.S. President Donald Trump had declared Friday that, as talks were proceeding positively, he had requested that China lift all its tariffs on U.S. agricultural commodities.
"I have asked China to immediately remove tariffs on our agricultural products ..."
He tweeted this update on the trade talks while weighing in on the fact that he had not proceeded to raise duties on China's goods which he had intended to enforce March 1, raising it to 25 percent from the initial 10 percent.
Trump also added that it was very important to American farmers and well as to him. Farmers form a major part of his Republican Party constituency, and his trade war with China had a great impact on them.
In the previous year, China placed tariffs on American import products, such as grain, pork, beef, and soybeans. This had severely cut into American shipments of farmer's products to the Asian trade giant.
Some hours before Trump tweeted, the U.S. Trade Representative had announced the stay on the tariff hike placed on Chinese imports into the United States, which represented a US$200 billion worth of goods.
The tariff hike will be published Tuesday on the Federal Register based on the notice that it is "no longer appropriate" to increase the rates with the progress being made at the trade talks. For the moment, the tariffs on Chinese goods will stay at 10 percent "until further notice."
The hike was imposed after U.S. and Chinese trade officials accomplished this week's talks in the U.S. capital.
Guo believed that "substantial progress" had been made during the talks regarding U.S. qualms regarding the protection of intellectual property and non-tariff barriers, among other things. He also pointed out that both countries stand to gain more out of "cooperation" rather than "confrontation."
According to him, working together in a concerted manner is most suitable in order to move on.
There has been no formalized agreement between China and the United States to end their trade war, but so far, both countries have made the agreement to hold tariffs as they are.
Edward Alden, who is on the Council on Foreign Relations, has weighed in on the matter of the trade war. He says that a way out can always be found, but that "it's very hard."
