China US Photo: VCG

 
China firmly opposes the US' false accusations and related review measures concerning USTR' latest investigation over Phase One deal, and urged the US to promptly correct its wrong practices and protect the hard-won outcomes of consultations, a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the US said in an emailed statement sent to the Global Times on Saturday.

The US Trade Representative's office on Friday (US time) had launched a new tariff investigation into China's "apparent failure" to comply with the "Phase One" trade deal signed with President Donald Trump in 2020 to end his first-term US-China trade war, according to Reuters.

A USTR Federal Register notice announcing the probe also claimed that China appeared to not have lived up to its commitments to change policies on intellectual property protections, forced technology transfer, agriculture and financial services - practices that were at the heart of Trump's first-term tariffs on Chinese imports.

"As a major country that takes its responsibilities seriously, China has scrupulously fulfilled its obligations in the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement by protecting intellectual property, increasing imports, and providing greater market access, which has created a favorable business environment geared to investors of all countries including US companies, for them to share the benefits of China's economic development," Liu Pengyu, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the US, said in an emailed statement sent to the Global Times on Saturday.

The emailed statement was obtained by the Global Times following an earlier post by the spokesperson on social media platform X, which stated the same content.
 
However, since signing the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement, the US has systematically escalated economic and other forms of pressure against China, implementing a series of restrictive measures such as export controls and investment restrictions that repudiate the spirit of the Agreement, noted Liu.

Concurrently, the US has promoted false narratives related to human rights, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and the pandemic. These actions have done serious damage to China-US ties as well as economic and trade relations, and disrupted normal trade and investment activities, and significantly undermined the conditions necessary for the implementation of the Agreement, said Liu.

China urges the US to promptly correct its wrong practices, adhere to the important consensuses of the phone calls between the two heads of state, protect the hard-won outcomes of consultations, continue to use the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism, and address respective concerns and properly manage differences through dialogues and on the basis of mutual respect and equal-footed consultation, so as to ensure the stable, sound and sustainable development of the China-US economic and trade relationship, said Liu.

He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Saturday that the US investigation lacks an international legal basis and violates both WTO rules and the US commitment to its WTO obligations.

As the two sides begin a new round of trade talks in Malaysia this weekend, this move could be seen as a US attempt to gain more bargaining chips. However, He stated that this tactic of increasing pressure on China will not work.

On April 9, China's State Council Information Office released a white paper titled "China's Position on China-US Economic and Trade Relations."

The white paper stated that the US side has failed to fulfill its obligations under the Phase One trade agreement, noting that it has not honored its commitments in areas including technology transfer, trade in food and agricultural products, financial services, and exchange rate policies.

USTR's announcement came a day before the start of a new round of US-China talks over rare earths export controls in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

China, as a responsible major country, has consistently opposed "decoupling" and supply chain disruptions and firmly safeguards the security and stability of global production and supply chains, China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said at a press conference on Friday when talking about China-US trade. 

The first four rounds of China-US economic and trade consultations have fully demonstrated that, based on mutual respect and equal-footed negotiation, the two sides can find ways to address each other's concerns, a right path to get along with each other, and promote the healthy, stable, and sustainable development of China-US economic and trade relations, Wang said.