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China's economy has demonstrated strong resilience, great potential and vitality, and the country is capable of resisting the impact of external shocks. Tariffs will only lead to high costs for consumers, and a stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US economic and trade relations will benefit peoples of both countries and the world, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said on Friday.

Wang made the remarks at a press conference on Friday in response to a question regarding the impact of US' potential 60 percent tariff hit on Chinese imports.

China is building the new economic development pattern of "dual circulation" with the domestic market as the mainstay and the domestic and overseas markets reinforcing each other. We are capable of resolving and withstanding the impact of external shocks, Wang told reporters.

History has also shown that the imposition of tariffs on China by a country does not solve the problem of its own trade deficit, on the contrary, it pushes up the prices of the country's imports from China as well as from other countries, Wang noted.

It is because ultimately the tariffs are paid for by the consumers and the end-users of the importing country, which inevitably leads to an increase in the prices paid by the consumers and an increase in the costs to the users, which also leads to inflation, the vice commerce minister further elaborated.

Wang noted that China and the US are the two largest economies in the world, and the two economies have strong complementarities. We believe that if China and the US can maintain a stable, healthy and sustainable development trend in their economic and trade relations, it will be beneficial to both the Chinese people and the American people, as well as the people of all countries in the world, and this is also the expectation of the international community, he said.

China is willing to engage in dialogue with the US on the basis of the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, in a bid to expand areas of cooperation, manage differences, and promote the stability of the bilateral trade and economic and trade relationship, Wang said, noting that China will also firmly safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests.

Global Times