Shanghai, China, Nov 26 (EFE).- China warned Tuesday that “no one will win a trade or tariff war” after US President-elect Donald Trump promised to raise tariffs on all Chinese products by 10 percent upon taking office in January 2025.
“China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. No one will win a trade war or a tariff war,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson of China’s embassy in the US, wrote on his official X account.
Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he would impose the additional tariffs until China stopped the flow of fentanyl into the US.
Over 150 people die in the US daily from overdoses of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
“I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail,” wrote the winner of the recent presidential elections.
“Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our Country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before,” Trump added.
In response, Liu said that “the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality.”
The Chinese diplomatic spokesperson said that the counter-narcotics agencies of China and the US “have resumed regular communication” since the meeting between the presidents of both countries, Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, in San Francisco in November last year.
“The Chinese side has notified the US side of the progress made in US-related law enforcement operations against narcotics. China has responded to US request for verifying clues on certain cases and taken action,” Liu added.
During his campaign, Trump had vowed to save jobs in the US by imposing tariffs of up to 20 percent on all imported products and 60 percent on those from China, against which he started the trade war in 2018 during his first presidential term. EFE
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