China vows to protect interests in US trade spat
Beijing, July 5: China said on Thursday that it does not want a trade war to start if the US imposes the first round of tariffs on imported Chinese products, but if it does then Beijing will be forced to react in the interests of the country and its people.
On Friday, the US will initially impose a set of tariffs on 818 Chinese items worth about $34 billion. Separate measures affecting 284 products worth about $16 billion could take effect following a review and public comment process.
China has repeated several times that it was not going to impose tariffs before the US does so, Commerce Ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said at a press conference here.
"US measures are essentially attacking global supply and value chains. To put it simply, the US is opening fire on the entire world, including itself," he was quoted as saying by Efe news.
"China will not bow to threats or blackmailing and our resolve to safeguard global free trade and the multilateral mechanism will not waver."
Nearly 50 per cent of the products subjected to tariffs, accounting for more than $20 billion, are manufactured by foreign firms in China, a majority of them American, Gao said.
He also said that the US move amounts to violation of provisions of the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 and of the Agreement on Safeguards.
Gao called on all countries to unite against protectionism and unilateralism. "China will work with other countries to fight against the regressive tide of backward, outdated and inefficient protectionism and unilateralism and will maintain a stable and predictable global economic and trade environment."
Beijing had already warned President Donald Trump that if tariffs on Chinese products are imposed, it will react with tariffs on 545 goods imported from the US.
Despite warning of retaliatory tariffs, the spokesperson expressed China's intention to protect the interests of all the firms based in China and help them diffuse the potential impact of a trade war.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
