BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, urged China on Tuesday to ensure a negotiated solution to problems caused by the sweeping import tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a phone call with China’s Premier Li Qiang, von der Leyen “stressed the responsibility of Europe and China, as two of the world’s largest markets, to support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field”, her office said in a statement.
Both politicians discussed setting up a mechanism to track possible trade diversion caused by the tariffs, von der Leyen’s office said, as the EU fears China will redirect cheap exports from the U.S. to Europe.
Earlier on Tuesday Beijing rebuked Trump after he announced additional 50% tariffs on Chinese imports, calling it “blackmail”.
Trump has also threatened to ratchet up tariffs on U.S. imports from the world’s No. 2 economy to more than 100% from Wednesday in response to China’s decision to match the “reciprocal” duties the U.S. president announced last week.
Premier Li, calling U.S. tariffs “typical unilateralist, protectionist, economic bullying,” defended China’s countermeasures, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
The measures are aimed not only at safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security and development interest, but also at defending global trade rules and international fairness and justice, Li said.
China’s macroeconomic policies this year have fully taken into account various uncertainties and it has sufficient policy tools in reserve, Li said, adding that Beijing was “fully capable of hedging against adverse external influences”.
The European Union has proposed counter-tariffs of its own to Trump’s onslaught that has swept up dozens of countries, sent financial markets into a tailspin and fuelled expectations that the global economy may be headed for recession.
“China is willing to strengthen political mutual trust with the EU,” Li said, calling on both sides to safeguard free and open trade and investment.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Makini Brice, Sudip Kar-Gupta and Gareth Jones)
