China says US tariffs 'not constructive' way to resolve trade dispute

The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, said Friday that tariffs are "not a constructive" way to solve the US trade war, Trend reports citing Sputnik.

"Slapping on tariffs is definitely not a constructive way to resolve economic and trade frictions, it's not the correct way", Wang said on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asia's top diplomats in Thailand, according to AFP.

Beijing and Washington have been engaged in a trade war since June 2018, when Trump announced he was imposing tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports in a bid to balance the trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have introduced several rounds of reciprocal tariffs.

In June, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day truce during which they would refrain from imposing additional tariffs and re-launch negotiations in a bid to resolve the trade war.

The first bilateral trade talks since the G20 summit wrapped up in Shanghai on Wednesday, attended by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Vice Premier Liu He was the lead negotiator for China. According to media reports, official negotiations ended 40 minutes ahead of schedule with no follow-up briefing, which caused many to speculate that the parties had failed to achieve success.

On Wednesday, the White House said that the United States and China would continue trade negotiations in September in Washington.