China should not let trade tensions with the US disturb its policy of financial market reforms and liberalisation, recently appointed PBOC chief Yi Gang said on Friday, citing concerns over the global repercussions of continued trade threats.
Speaking at the Caixin Roundtable conference in Washington, Yi said that “further escalation of trade tensions between China and the US, with tit-for-tat retaliatory threats, will spin out of control.” In the past few months the US has launched tariffs on over $50 billion of Chinese imports in manufacturing and industry, with Beijing applying similar measures on several key US products such as sorghum.
Yi added that the US’s concerns regarding their trade imbalance with China requires a multilateral analysis, with questions that need to be addressed involving the US’s own domestic economic policy.