China said Friday that the United States has eased certain export restrictions in line with a “hard-won” framework reached at talks last month, warning against “blackmail and coercion” as the countries attempt to de-escalate a ruinous trade war.
“Currently, both teams are working quickly to implement the results outlined in the London framework”, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement, referring to the June meetings.
Beijing is now “reviewing applications for export licences of controlled items that meet the requirements”, it said.
“The US side is also taking corresponding actions and has lifted a series of restrictive measures against China, the details of which have been communicated to the Chinese side,” it added.
The world’s two top economies agreed to an outline of a deal to walk back from the brink of staggering tariffs at last month’s meetings in London, with concessions including Beijing’s resumption of key rare earth exports.
Washington has also recently lifted rules for certain exports to China, including by removing licence requirements for shipping ethane to the country, according to a Bloomberg report this week.
China’s commerce ministry statement added that “the London framework was hard-won” — and warned that “blackmail and coercion will lead nowhere”.
“We hope the United States will… continue to work in the same direction as China (and) further correct its erroneous practices.”
Prior to the London talks, Beijing and Washington had agreed to temporarily lower steep tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products.
But US officials later accused Beijing of violating the pact and slow-walking its approvals of export licences for rare earths — the global production of which is dominated by China.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States was “getting along well with China”.
