美 "무역협상 본질•경과 왜곡하는 중국 비난전에 실망"
Trade tensions between the United States and China went up a notch...after the Trump administration refuted against Beijing's policy paper on the issue published on Sunday.
U.S. officials say Beijing is pursuing a 'blame game'...which is misrepresenting the nature of trade negotiations.
Our Ko Roon-hee explains.
The U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Treasury Department released a joint statement Monday directly countering Beijing's argument that the trade war was started by Washington.
The statement says... the U.S. is disappointed by China's decision to blame the Trump administration.
Washington reiterated its argument that the conflict is rooted in the unfair trade practices that Beijing has engaged in for decades.
These practices, it says, have hurt American workers and businesses... and led to a trade deficit last year of almost 420 billion U.S. dollars.
The U.S. was responding to a white paper released Sunday by China's State Council Information Office... arguing that it's not China but the U.S. that's backtracked on its commitments in negotiations.
Although Beijing emphasized that it's willing to work things out, Washington's response seems to mean the tensions won't ease anytime soon.
Last year, the U.S. and China exchanged tariffs on around 360 billion U.S. dollars worth of each other's goods.
From June 1st, Beijing has raised some existing tariffs to 25 percent... as Washington threatens new ones of its own.
The ongoing trade tensions are hurting the global economy, including the United States.
According to a report Monday by the Institute for Supply Management, the Purchasing Managers Index, which is an indicator of economic health in the manufacturing and service sectors, fell last month in the U.S. to its lowest in more than 2 years.
There have been no talks scheduled since the last ones ended in May,... and it remains to be seen whether President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will sit down for talks when they attend the G20 leaders summit in Japan later this month.
Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.
