The US and China failed to solve their trade dispute during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which ended without a joint public statement for the first time.
There had been hopes that the 21-nation strong summit would be a platform for the US and China to end the trade war which began in 2018.
However, it instead saw US Vice-President Mike Pence criticize China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying that it would only leave participating countries in “staggering debt”
Pence also warned the US could “more than double” the $250 billion worth of tariffs it has already placed on Chinese goods since the trade war began in January 2018.
What are the big trends in the world of trade and logistics? Find out with a Port Technology technical paper
“The United States will not change course until China changes its ways,” Pence said. He also claimed that China had been “taking advantage of the US for many years” and that the tariffs were an attempt to address the trade balance between the two countries.
Those comments were in response to Xi Jinping, China’s Premier, who criticized the US’ trade policies.
Xi said: “History has shown that confrontation, whether in the form of a cold war, a hot war or a trade war, will produce no winners.
“Attempts to erect barriers and cut close economic ties work against the laws of economics and the trends of history.
“This is a short-sighted approach and it is doomed to failure.”
Read more:
