Here's one of the signs that shows "no one wins in a trade war": China's imports and exports to the United States fell by 9.6 percent in the first five months of 2019, according to the latest report from the nation's Ministry of Commerce (MOC).
"Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed," says ministry spokesman Gao Feng during Thursday's presser. "It was the U.S. that was not honest in the consultations and unilaterally upgraded trade friction, which led to serious setbacks in the negotiations. If the U.S. insists on unilateralism and wants to force China to yield, this will never succeed."
U.S. President Donald Trump recently said that China's economy has been seriously hurt by the tariffs. He added that companies are leaving China to avoid paying them. Put another way, he was implying that China's attraction for investments was weakened by the tariffs he imposed earlier.
While in fact, according to the latest official data, in the first five months of this year, China's actual use of foreign capital saw an increase of 3.7 percent year on year. Also, China's manufacturing utilization of foreign investment has increased by 8.3 percent.
Gao said these figures demonstrate the "strong confidence of foreign investors" in the Chinese economy and the Chinese market. "China is still the most attractive investment hot spot in the world," says Gao.
He noted that recent research from JP Morgan Chase Bank, Goldman Sachs and other institutions shows that the cost of U.S. tariffs has been passed on to U.S. importers, retailers and consumers.
