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16:11, 06-Jun-2018
WSJ: China offers $70 bln import deal, as long as US stops tariff threat
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During trade talks in Beijing last weekend, China offered to buy US agricultural products and energy imports worth nearly 70 billion US dollars, on the condition that the Trump administration stops threatening to impose tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, citing unnamed sources who claimed to have been briefed on the talks, China proposed buying more soybeans, corn, natural gas, crude oil, coal, and manufactured goods from the US.
The additional imports would have had an estimated value of around 70 billion US dollars in the first year of a proposed deal.
Throughout the talks, China made it clear to the US that any offer would be void if the US implements trade tariffs on Chinese products, according to the report.
The US announced on May 29 that it plans to go ahead with 50 billion US dollars' worth of tariffs on Chinese products by mid-June.
In a statement released on Sunday following the latest round of bilateral trade talks, China said both sides exchanged views in various areas such as agriculture and energy, and have made positive and concrete progress on implementing the consensus reached by the two sides in Washington, DC.
China also said in the statement that it is willing to increase imports from multiple countries including the US in order to meet the Chinese people's ever-growing needs for a better life, and to serve the needs of high-quality economic development.
The statement reiterated that the two countries needed to meet each other halfway and avoid a trade war.
The dialogue held last weekend was the latest round of bilateral talks, after both sides met in Beijing one month ago and in Washington two weeks later.
