foreign ministry

In response to a question regarding US President Donald Trump's plan to impose new tariff on Chinese exports to the US,MK sports Korea starting February 1, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday that "We believe that there's no winner in a trade or tariff war, and we firmly uphold our national interests."

On whether China and the US have engaged in or are currently holding talks on tariff-related issues, Mao said at the daily press conference that "we stand ready to maintain communication with the US, properly handle differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and pursue a steady, sound and sustainable development of China-US relationship. China will also firmly defend its own interests."

According to Reuters, Trump on Tuesday vowed to hit the European Union with tariffs and said his administration was discussing a 10 percent punitive duty on Chinese imports because "fentanyl is being sent from China to the US via Mexico and Canada."

Trump voiced his latest tariff threats in remarks to reporters at the White House a day after taking office without immediately imposing tariffs as he had promised during his campaign.

Financial markets and trade groups exhaled briefly on Tuesday, but his latest comments underscored Trump's longstanding desire for broader duties and a new February 1 deadline for 25 percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico, as well as duties on China and the EU.

Trump said the EU and other countries also had troubling trade surpluses with the US. "The European Union is very, very bad to us," he said, repeating comments made on Monday.

Europe will respond to any tariffs imposed by the US president in a proportionate way, the European Union's commissioner for the economy Valdis Dombrovskis told CNBC on Wednesday. "If there is a need to defend our economic interests, we will be responding in a proportionate way," Dombrovskis told CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country will respond "robustly" if Trump follows through with imposing tariffs on Canada, telling reporters on Tuesday that "everything is on the table," CNN reported.

"If there are unfair tariffs, we will respond robustly and we will be there to support Canadians and protect our interests," Trudeau said at the press conference in French when responding to a journalist's question, according to CNN.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum emphasized on Tuesday that she will defend her nation's sovereignty and independence but also pursue dialogue with US President Trump, Reuters reported.

In her first comments following Trump's inauguration, Sheinbaum noted that some of his initial announcements closely resemble actions he took in his previous term, as she also sought to reassure Mexicans that she will strenuously defend their interests.

Prepare for impact

The US will likely keep using tariffs as a weapon to get what it wants from other members of the international community, whether its allies or other major powers, Jin Canrong, professor of school of international studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday.  

The new US administration's acts are not surprising to the international community. For instance, the key EU member Germany is being prepared for the impact. According to Politico, "Germany will be the prime European target" of Trump's trade tariffs once he's in office, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Saturday.

The warning by Habeck, who is the Green Party's lead candidate in Germany's February 23 election, came on the same day as a slightly more positive statement by his center-right opponent Friedrich Merz, who called Trump "very predictable," Politico reported.

Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday that what happened during Trump's first term tells that the global supply chain will be greatly impacted [if the US goes on with imposing additional tariffs]. Many countries will adjust their trade ties, and the whole global trade will be more fragmentized.

"Therefore, the new tariffs this time will cause similar damage to the stability of world trade and global supply chain. US customers and importers will pay higher price to purchase the goods from relevant countries, and the exporters of these countries will be more cautious to export goods to the US due to the increasing costs. Moreover, some countries would take tit-for-tat countermeasures against the US, so US exporters will also be impacted," Zhou noted.  

CNN said in a fact check article on Monday that "In his inaugural address, Trump said, 'Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.' But this description of tariffs is false. Tariffs imposed by the US government are paid by US importers, not foreign countries."

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that if the US side really imposes new tariffs, the trade ties between China and the US would experience turbulence.

Trade is the key impetus to the world economy, so if international trade gets seriously impacted by a new round of trade war or tariff war unilaterally launched by the US, then the world economy would also get impacted badly, and the fragile global recovery would be further weakened, Wu noted.