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Washington is investigating aluminum imports from China under
the rarely used section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962
that allows restrictions on imports for reasons of national
security. The administration is also conducting a separate
investigation into steel.
"The scale of 'national security' is very wide and lacking clear
definition, which is easily misused and therefore posing
restrictions on normal flow of international trade," Sun Jiwen,
spokesman at China's Commerce Ministry, said at a weekly
briefing.
His comments come after senior officials told Reuters that U.S.
President Donald Trump is growing increasingly frustrated with
China over its inaction on North Korea and bilateral trade
issues and is now considering possible trade actions against
Beijing.
"It is inevitable to have some friction as the bilateral trade
between China and U.S. is massive," Sun said.
"Generally the cooperation between China and the U.S. goes
smoothly and has achieved many positive results. China will
continue making effort on it, and hope the U.S. can also work
toward the same direction," said Sun.
In April, Beijing and Washington agreed to a 100-day plan for
trade talks in a bid to boost access to each other's markets.
So far, the United States has accepted imports of cooked poultry
from China and in turn, China has agreed to drop a 14-year ban
on beef imports.
(Reporting by Muyu Xu, Thomas Suen and Josephine Mason; Editing
by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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