China’s central bank governor and finance minister – its top financial and economic officials – have condemned the trade war at a Group of 20 ministers meeting in Washington, concluding the tour without official bilateral dialogue with their US counterparts.
“There are no winners in trade wars or tariff wars, and major economies should enhance their participation in international macroeconomic and financial policy coordination,” Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said in an official statement on Friday following this week’s meeting.
As economic fragmentation and persistent trade tensions continue to disrupt industrial and supply chains while dampening global growth momentum, concrete action must be taken to advance international cooperation and safeguard global economic and financial stability, Pan said.
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While noting how China’s economy got the year off to a strong start – with gross domestic product growth up 5.4 per cent in the first quarter – Pan said it was maintaining an upwards recovery trend, with financial markets operating smoothly.
And he reiterated that China would implement a moderately loose monetary policy to support growth.
Lan Foan, China’s finance minister, said during the same meeting that tariff wars and trade wars were further undermining economic and financial stability, as the current global economic growth already lacks momentum.
While China firmly upholds the multilateral trading system and advocates for resolving trade and tariff disputes through equal dialogue and consultation, it will also resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, Lan said.
Finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 major economies met in Washington from Tuesday to Thursday on the sidelines of the annual spring International Monetary Fund and World Bank gatherings.
Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group, said: “The statements largely reiterated China’s established positions, aiming to stabilise expectations on its economic policy stance amid global uncertainty. The lack of any mention of US-China trade negotiations signals that the likelihood of a near-term deal remains low.”
According to the official statement from the Chinese government, Lan and Pan did not schedule any formal meetings with their American counterparts during their days in the US capital.
Instead, Lan met with a slew of top economic officials from the European Union, Germany, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Pan met with Kazuo Ueda, governor of the Bank of Japan, as well as Bulgarian National Bank governor Dimitar Radev.
During the same spring meeting last year, Pan met with Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve.
The world’s two largest economies have been embroiled in a tariff war since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Washington has imposed tariffs totalling 145 per cent on Chinese imports so far this year, bringing the effective tariff rate to about 156 per cent.
The White House says China now faces tariffs of up to 245 per cent – a figure that includes tariffs predating the second Trump administration. Meanwhile, Beijing’s new levies on US goods have risen to 125 per cent, also on top of earlier-imposed tariffs.
The skyrocketing tariffs have effectively brought US-China trade to a standstill.
Chinese officials on Thursday denied claims that trade negotiations with the US were under way. Trump later refuted the Chinese statement, saying there were meetings earlier in the day.
“They had a meeting this morning,” Trump told reporters, declining to say to whom he was referring. “It doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China.”
On Friday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that no consultations nor negotiations regarding the tariffs had taken place.
“The US side should refrain from misleading the public,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday.
Nick Marro, principal economist for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said the Chinese foreign policy apparatus operates by first conducting discussions at a lower level before gradually moving them upwards through the system.
“It’s unlikely that we see China agree to any negotiations that begin at more senior levels of the relationship,” he said.
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