File photo of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
China-U.S. trade negotiations are not a one-way street and should be based on equality, said Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday when meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Sochi.
Wang said that the trade talks have made important and substantial progress, but at the same time difficulties in the process need to be taken seriously and solved. In this case, unilaterally accusing the other party is meaningless, and pushing responsibility to the other party is not acceptable.
China's countermeasures are not only to safeguard its own rights and interests, but also to maintain the basic rules of the multilateral trading mechanism, said Wang.
China gives priority to the sovereignty of the country, the interests of the people and the dignity of the nation when negotiating with other countries. These principles are the bottom line the country has always persisted, Wang added.
Wang said that as long as this negotiation is in line with China's direction of reform and opening-up, in line with China's fundamental needs for high-quality development and in line with the common and long-term interests of the Chinese and American peoples, the negotiating teams of both sides will be able to meet the reasonable needs from each side and finally reach a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement.
In response to the U.S. move to hike tariffs on 200-billion-U.S.-dollars' worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent, China on Monday decided to impose tariffs of 25 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent on certain U.S. products starting June 1.
