The Ministry of Commerce declared that China is one of the countries with the strictest and most effective anti-drug policies in the world, and stressed that both countries have carried out broad and deep cooperation in drug control with significant progress. However, Washington has ignored these efforts and has used the fentanyl issue as an excuse to impose additional tariffs, which, according to Beijing, violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and represents an act of unilateralism and abuse of power.

The Ministry reiterated that the unilateral tariffs imposed by the United States are not only incompatible with international trade rules, but also damage the multilateral trading system. In Beijing’s view, these measures will not solve the United States’ internal problems and could negatively affect bilateral economic cooperation and the global trade order. “We hope that the United States will respect the rights of other countries and withdraw these unjustified measures,” the ministry added.

Chinese authorities urged Washington to adopt an objective and rational stance, while advocating the abandonment of actions that harm both others and itself.

Beijing called for resuming equal dialogue as a means to resolve differences in an appropriate manner.

Both countries face a key moment in their economic relations, marked by tensions arising from political decisions in the United States that impact global trade.

Washington applied 10 percent tariffs on all products from China and in response China implemented additional tariffs on some imported products.

In addition to the imposition of tariffs, China launched an investigation against Google for possible violations of antitrust law and added the American companies PVH Group and Illumina Inc. to its list of unreliable entities.

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