The comment from Wang came after the US Commerce Department on Friday added five Chinese technology companies to the entity list prohibiting them from buying parts from American companies.
“We hope the US side, under the principles of free trade and the spirit of WTO (World Trade Organization) principles, can cancel these inappropriate measures against Chinese companies, and remove them from the entity list. This has benefits for both sides,” Wang said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.
He also added that discussions between the US and Chinese negotiating teams ahead of the G-20 meeting are underway, and both countries should make compromises in trade talks. However, he didn’t mention if Chinese telecom giant Huawei, who also got sanctioned by the US, will be part of any trade agreement.
US and Chinese stock indexes rallied after news of the call, in hopes, the world’s two largest economies would soon reach an agreement on a trade dispute that has lasted for more than a year, and roiled global equity markets as well as fuelled concerns about economic growth worldwide.
“Beijing received another reminder of the US’s willingness to crack down on Chinese tech firms on Friday, with the Commerce Department’s announcement that it will place several Chinese supercomputing companies — including number two firm Sugon — on the entity list. The move will not disrupt planning for a Trump-Xi meeting directly, but Beijing will see it as further evidence that those around Trump intend to blunt China’s rise as a tech power,” Michael Hirson, practice head, China and Northeast Asia, at Eurasia Group, said in a note released over the weekend.
The trade dispute between China and the United States, which began last year after Donald Trump slapped 25-percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods ostensibly in a bid to fix what he called Beijing’s "unfair trade practices.” Since then, the sides have exchanged several rounds of duties.
