China said the removal of tariffs on Thursday was a "requisite" of negotiating a trade agreement with the United States, a request U.S. President Donald Trump said he had refused earlier this month.
The remarks of the Ministry of Commerce indicated that a significant gap already distinguishes the declaration of Trump last month that they had entered a "step two" settlement from the Washington and Beijing conflict.
The two economic superpowers were entangled in an 18-month trade tussle that weighed heavily on the global markets. The two sides placed punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in dual exchange.
Last week, in the wake of indicators of rising strains, the Chinese Trade Ministry said the two sides agreed on a plan to roll back tariffs in stages- just to have Trump claim any such agreement had been made.
Trump threatened on Tuesday that if a tentative agreement with Beijing failed to materialize, he could even further raise tariffs.
"The Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that the trade discord will end with the introduction of tariffs and should be eliminated by its removal," a spokesperson for China's commerce ministry Gao Feng disclosed during a media briefing in Beijing, Thursday.
Trump held off on a round of tariff hikes last month, and White House officials said he could suspend fresh tariffs on Chinese goods scheduled for mid-December as part of the current mini-deal.
The partial agreement could also include promises from Beijing to increase purchases of U.S. farm goods and better intellectual property rights protection.
Trump planned to sign a pact with President Xi Jinping of China on the sidelines of this month's now-canceled summit in Chile.
No other meeting between the two countries has been announced since the cancelation of the summit.
Gao said the elimination of tariffs is "in line with producers' and consumers' needs, in conjunction with China's and the United States' preferences," as well as with global interests.
The International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth forecast and warned that it would cut $700 billion out of the world economy next year by implementing all the announced tariffs.
The U.S. Trade Representative's office in Washington praised the announcement, claiming it should help drive over $1 billion in annual U.S. poultry exports.
"Reopening China for U.S. poultry would create new export markets for our poultry producers and help thousands of U.S. poultry industry staff," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.
