Nation reserves the right to take all necessary measures, ministry says

China has voiced firm opposition to a potential move by the United States to impose an additional 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese goods, and said it would keep a close eye on any follow-up steps Washington makes while reserving the right to take all necessary measures, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Successive rounds of tariff hikes have done little to revive US manufacturing or narrow trade imbalances with its major trading partners, officials and analysts said, urging Washington to lower trade barriers and pursue mutually beneficial economic cooperation.

Their remarks came as Washington was reportedly weighing an additional 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese goods under a Section 301 probe launched in March into alleged "structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors" across 16 economies, including China.

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"The investigations politicize economic and trade issues and represent a typical act of unilateralism and protectionism," Huang Ling, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, said at a news conference on Thursday in Beijing.

The ministry last month released a document on the so-called "overcapacity" issue, calling for a comprehensive, objective and fair approach to capacity concerns and for differences to be addressed through open and mutually beneficial cooperation.

The US was "set to impose" the levy, which would bring the additional tariffs introduced during US President Donald Trump's second term back to around 20 percent, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The final rate has yet to be settled. One option under discussion is to announce a higher tariff but suspend part of it, bringing the effective rate down to 7.5 percent, the report said.

Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the additional tariff, if imposed, would do more harm than good to efforts to revive US manufacturing, as it would raise trade costs and erode efficiency gains from global specialization.

Similar concerns were raised in an analysis released earlier this month by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

Examining potential tariffs stemming from the Section 301 probe into alleged manufacturing overcapacity, it said Washington's high-tariff strategy had yet to deliver the promised gains. "None of these benefits has yet been realized," the analysis stated.

While the US trade deficit with China had narrowed, deficits with other trading partners have widened, leaving the country with "no reduction in its overall trade deficit", according to the analysis.

High tariffs have "contributed to growing prices and uncertainty", the analysis stated, citing a Yale Budget Lab estimate that they would cost each American household roughly $1,100 per year.

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Zhou said a lasting revival of US manufacturing would require openness and cooperation rather than confrontation and economic coercion. "Otherwise, any recovery would be difficult to sustain," he said.

Cui Fan, a professor of international trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, echoed that view.

"Shifting blame onto China will do nothing to solve the problem," he said, adding that China remains willing to deepen industrial and supply chain cooperation in manufacturing with countries around the world.

Contact the writers at zhangchenxu@chinadaily.com.cn