File Photo:VCG

The US tariffs imposed on Chinese-made goods have proved to be a total failure to gain an edge against China and are a damaging tool that hurts US companies and consumers as well as normal trade activities between the two major economies, experts said.

These remarks came as the US Trade Representative's Office (USTR) said on Wednesday, in a new assessment report, that the country needs to pursue new strategies and update its domestic trade tools to deal with China's "state-led, non-market policies and practices.".

"China has not moved to embrace the market-oriented principles on which the WTO and its rules are based, despite the representations that it made when it joined 20 years ago […] China has instead retained and expanded its state-led, non-market approach to the economy and trade," Reuters reported, citing the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

The latest statement by the USTR is not only an old, stereotyped talk against China, but also a simple and clear message that the US ill-intended tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the Trump administration are a failure, experts said.

"The message of the USTR's statement is a reflection that the tariff tool is not working, and they want to cancel the tariff, but there is not yet a new thing to follow up," Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday, noting that the US tariffs on Chinese goods only add up the costs and eventually hurt the US consumers.

In terms of the so-called "state-owned, non-market policies and practices" hyped by the US trade authorities, Gao said that this is really a groundless old talk borrowed from Trump's administration when they attempted to impose tariffs to counter China .

"China's foreign trade mainly involves private and foreign enterprises, while the proportion of state-owned enterprises is small," Gao further noted.

"The US will realize that any attempt to increase its weight on China will ultimately hurt its own interests," Gao said, noting that China maintains an open attitude and hopes that the US will respond equally because only in this way can both countries meet their trade development needs.

"Many of the US tactics are not aimed at solving the trade issue but to suppress China and Chinese companies," Bai Ming, Deputy Director of the International Market Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"The US should look in the mirror when talking about subsidy measures that break World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, because that is what they have been doing all the time," Bai said.

This came just less than a month after the WTO arbitration tribunal approved on January 26 that, because the US failed to implement the WTO ruling, China could impose trade retaliations against the US of $645 million per year in trade.

This is the second time China has won a trade retaliation claim against the US in the WTO.

At the same time, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce urged the US to stop looking for any excuses and take immediate action to correct its wrongdoing in the trade investigation against China.