'Cold War' in U.S.-Chinese Trade Risks Heating Up, Says France
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday urged an end to the "Cold War in trade" between the United States and China, warning the world was just a step away from a globally destructive, full-blown trade conflict.
"Today we are in a Cold War in trade between the United States and China which is dangerous for our economy, our growth and our jobs. We must get out of it," Le Maire told a conference in Paris on reforming the global trading system.
The minister said tit-for-tat tariff increases threatened to turn the standoff into "a full-blown trade war" with "economic suicide for the whole world."
"There would only be losers in an economic war," he added, calling for a reform of the World Trade Organization.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom appealed to China to join efforts to reform the WTO.
"China has won a lot from the WTO system," she said, urging Beijing "to engage with us to reform and to update the system, to create a level playing field. Otherwise, the U.S. will create a level playing field outside the system."
WTO reforms are expected to feature prominently in talks among leaders of the G20 biggest developed and emerging economies meeting in Argentina at the end of November.
U.S. President Donald Trump's punitive tariffs on Chinese imports and European auto parts -- which drew retaliatory measures -- have unsettled trade relations and added urgency to the discussions.
Trump has threatened to pull the United States out of the WTO if it does not "shape up."
Source: Agence France Presse
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