China's commerce ministry is holding a briefing at the moment
- So far China and US have not been in touch about restarting negotiations
- China does not want a trade war, but does not have a fear for it
- China will fight a trade war if it does not have a choice
- Says US escalation on trade war is bringing global economy uncertainties
- China will have to take necessary measures to defend its interests
- Inciting a trade war will inevitably hurt US domestic consumers
- Says US tariffs has no international law basis at all
- Warns that US tariffs could tip the world economy into recession
- Says US is the one to have brought a trade deficit with China upon itself
- Impact of trade tensions to show in 2H 2018
The bolded comment pretty much says that talks so far are going nowhere and that there doesn't seem to be any end in sight to the trade dispute between the two. The main thing we're all waiting for is for the Q&A to come, where questions on the tariffs and retaliatory measures will surely be posed.
Nothing relevant so far from the Q&A session either. They did reiterate that they will take necessary retaliatory actions, but dropped the wording on "same scale and intensity" previously. Not sure if it's a subtle change that they will be pursuing other means (business restrictions perhaps?) other than tariffs.
