US lawmaker calls for diplomacy as Trump threatens additional tariffs on China

Washington: In an exclusive interview with IANS, US Representative Ami Bera advised against President Donald Trump’s threats of escalating US–China trade confrontation. He cautioned that a tariff war would ultimately “hurt the American consumer” and urged the White House to resume diplomacy rather than ramp up economic hostilities.

“I think trade war, tariff wars, this is not a good idea. It’s certainly going to hurt the American consumer,” the India-American Democrat lawmaker from California said, noting that the topic was discussed with regards to India when he recently visited the country.

Bera contended that it would be “good for the President to meet with Xi Jinping, the hope here is to avoid a trade war.”

“It’s also to avoid a real war, a kinetic war, right? So, conflict and competition is fine, but we don’t want to get into a tit-for-tat type of situation. I don’t think it benefits”, he said.

Bera’s remarks came in response to Trump’s social media posts earlier Friday in which the President announced the imposition of additional 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese products from November 1 and export controls on “any and all critical software.”

In another post, he threatened to cancel a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, accusing Beijing of “hostile” trade behaviour after China expanded export controls on rare earth elements.

“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks … but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump said.

He also called China’s recent restrictions on rare earths an “extraordinarily aggressive position” and a “moral disgrace.”

Earlier this week, Beijing tightened its export control measures on rare-earth elements and imposed a fee on US ships as Washington expanded its own rules governing exports.

While addressing the media at the White House, Trump termed Beijing’s measures as “shocking” and indicated that Washington could target exports of airplane parts.

“We have airplanes. We have airplane parts. We were just surprised. I have a very good relationship with President Xi, and they did that. This is not something that I instigated. This was just a response to something that they did. And they didn’t really aim it at us. They aimed it at the whole world. They have a lot of Boeing planes, and they need parts, and lots of things like that,” he added.

Last month, right before his third phone call with Xi since January, Trump announced that he would be meeting the Chinese president on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in South Korea scheduled for October 28 – November 1.

Both sides have been engaged in trade negotiations since April, with a temporary truce expiring on November 10.

–IANS