BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- As China and the United States agreed to restart economic and trade consultations, the world's two largest economies finally returned to the right track to solve their trade issues.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, on Saturday met on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in the Japanese city of Osaka. The U.S. side said it will not add new tariffs on Chinese exports.
The meeting between the two leaders broke a deadlock over trade issues that lasted for over a month, during which trade tensions between the two countries kept escalating, putting the global economy under great downward pressure.
International organizations including the World Bank expressed their concerns before the G20 Osaka summit. The World Bank downgraded its forecast for global growth in 2019 by 0.3 percentage points earlier this month, citing downside risks including rising trade barriers.
The breakthrough in solving trade issues has helped ease such worries, sending encouraging signals to the global market.
It is obvious that tariffs will not solve any problems. Instead, dialogue is the only way to solve disputes in trade. However, the dialogue must be conducted on the basis of equality and mutual respect. Legitimate concerns of both sides must be addressed.
China's response to the escalation of trade frictions during the past period has shown that the country will unswervingly safeguard its core interests on issues concerning its sovereignty and dignity.
Since China and the United States established diplomatic ties 40 years ago, both sides benefited from dialogue and cooperation. Though significant changes have taken place around the world during the period, dialogue and cooperation will always be a better choice than friction and confrontation between the two countries.
By promising no more additional tariffs will be imposed on Chinese goods, the United States has created conditions for the restart of consultations.
The U.S. side should keep its promise and cooperate with China to expand consensus and narrow differences, and that is the only right choice to address trade issues and reach win-win results.
