China says 'firmly rejects' US claim of violating tariff deal

BEIJING: China said Monday it “firmly rejects” claims by the United States that it had violated a deal to lower crippling tariffs between the world’s two largest economies.

Beijing and Washington last month agreed to temporarily slash staggeringly high levies on each other for 90 days after talks between top officials in Geneva.

But US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Beijing was “slow-rolling the deal”, in comments to “Fox News Sunday”.

Beijing hit back Monday, saying Washington “has made bogus charges and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts”.

“China firmly rejects these unreasonable accusations,” its commerce ministry said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump said last week that China had “totally violated” the deal, without providing details.

But Beijing’s commerce ministry said it “has been firm in safeguarding its rights and interests, and sincere in implementing the consensus”.

Washington “has successively introduced a number of discriminatory restrictive measures against China”, it said, citing export controls on artificial intelligence chips and revoking Chinese student visas in the United States.

“We urge the US to meet China halfway, immediately correct its wrongful actions, and jointly uphold the consensus from the Geneva trade talks,” the ministry said.

If not, “China will continue to resolutely take strong measures to uphold its legitimate rights and interests,” it added.