MOFCOM's spokesperson Gao Feng. Photo: Li Xuanmin/GT

China and the US should move to reduce instability in bilateral economic and trade relations, and avoid new trade and investment restrictions in a bid to jointly promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday. 

The comment came in response to a report released by the US-China Business Council, which showed the value of US exports to China had fallen sharply over the past two years, impacted by bilateral economic and trade frictions.

The trade war launched by Trump administration in late 2018 reduced the growth of US exports to China by roughly 16 percent, the report said.

Before the trade war, China was the fastest-growing market for US exports. From 2010 to 2017, growth in US exports to China hit 41.8 percent, much higher than the increase of 19.4 percent in US exports to other regions. 

"This report has showed again that there is no winner in the trade war, and that cooperation between the two countries benefits both, but fighting will hurt both," Gao Feng, spokesperson of the MOFCOM, said.

China and the US should take the opportunity of implementing their phase-one trade agreement and move toward each other, strengthen cooperation, manage their differences, and strive to reduce instability in bilateral economic and trade relations, Gao said.

Against the background of the global spread of COVID-19, cooperation will be of great significance in maintaining the economic stability of China and the US, and for lifting the global economy out of the impact of the epidemic as soon as possible, he added.