China state media urges U.S. to drop win-at-all-costs trade stance

[June 22, 2019]    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Instead of waging a trade war with China, the United States should drop its win-at-all-costs mentality and consider the interests of its own people as well as the global community, the official People's Daily said an editorial on Saturday.

The label reading "Made in China" on a sweatshirt is seen over another shirt with a U.S. flag at a souvenir stand in Boston, Massachusetts January 18, 2011. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The Chinese Communist Party's newspaper urged the United States to cancel all tariffs on Chinese goods, saying the only way to resolve trade issues was through "equal dialogue".

Hopes that the two sides can rekindle negotiations were raised in the run-up to a meeting next week between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Donald Trump in Japan, where they will both attend a Group of 20 summit.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is holding seven days of hearings from manufacturers and other businesses likely to be affected by a new round of tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The People's Daily said all previous hearings had shown "overwhelming" opposition to tariff increases from all walks of life, but it had made no difference.

"It seems that some people in the United States are waving the tariff stick in order to strengthen their so-called 'industrial competitive advantage'," it said.

"They do not consider public opinion, do not consider national conditions, and do not take the international economic order into account. They just want the renown as 'winners' but cannot understand the fact that they basically cannot win."

The U.S. National Retail Federation (NRF) said on Friday that the proposed tariff extension on Chinese goods, including cellphones and computers, could cost U.S. consumers an additional $12.2 billion each year.

(Reporting by David Stanway and Winni Zhou; Editing by SImon Cameron-Moore)

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