MNI POLICY: China Says U.S. Must End Tariffs Before Trade Deal

     BEIJING (MNI) - The U.S. must remove all the additional tariffs levied on

Chinese goods since the trade war commenced before an agreement can be reached

in further trade talks, said Gao Feng, the spokesman of Ministry of Commerce, at

a briefing on Thursday.

     Gao reiterated China's clear stance on removing additional tariffs,

criticizing that the U.S. tariff hikes have damaged the interest of American

companies and consumers, and dampened the world economy.

     The U.S. should keep its promises to restore supplies to Huawei

Technologies, and stop abusing its government power to hurt Chinese companies,

said Gao, when asked to comment media report about U.S. Commerce Department

telling staff to continue treating Huawei as blacklisted.

     Gao also said that agricultural products trading is a significant issue to

discuss between the two countries, without confirming whether China has promised

to buy "a tremendous amount of food and agricultural product" as Donald Trump

said at a presser after the G20 summit last Saturday.

     Both sides have maintained communications, Gao added, without disclosing

any update of the trade talks.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: wanxia.lin@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 10 8532 5998; email: william.bi@mni-news.com

[TOPICS: M$A$$$,M$Q$$$,MGQ$$$]