China hopes the United States will stop taking restrictive and discriminatory action against Chinese firms and create conditions for the implementation of a Phase 1 trade deal, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, Ren Hongbin said at a news conference on Thursday, state media reports. "The coronavirus pandemic and U.S. export control measures had undoubtedly had an impact on Chinese purchases of U.S. goods and services," Ren said. The current situation demands that the two sides work together and step up cooperation to overcome these difficult times, he said. During the first seven months, China's imports and exports to ASEAN, the European Union and Japan increased, while trade with the United States declined. The total value of China-U.S. trade was 2.03 trillion yuan, declining by 3.3 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 11.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.

Source: The Standard August 14, 2020 03:56 UTC