World leaders seek ways to counter US hegemony

Staff reporter and agencies

China yesterday blamed the United States for wielding hegemony at the expense of other nations and said it is ready to unleash stimulus to counter the effects of the tariff war.

And US President Donald Trump denied manipulating the market, amid the global chaos in stocks.

The tariffs are "typical unilateralism and protectionism, and economic bullying", spokesperson Lin Jian said.

He said that US tariffs in the name of reciprocity only served its own interest at the expense of other countries.

Last week, Trump introduced an additional 34 percent tariff on Chinese goods as part of steep levies imposed on most US trade partners, bringing the total duties on China this year to 54 percent. China retaliated with a series of countermeasures.

The tariffs have shaken global stock markets since the announcement on April 2. But Trump defended the tariffs, saying that "sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something."

Trump said he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia over the weekend, who hope to convince him to lower tariffs as high as 50 percent due to take effect this week. "They want to talk but there's no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis," Trump said.

Trump also said China's objections to new US tariffs stalled a deal to sell off TikTok and keep it operating in America.

China's Ministry of Commerce met with more than 20 US enterprises on Sunday, including representatives of Tesla, GE HealthCare and Medtronic. The ministry hopes US firms "make a rational voice and take practical measures" to jointly maintain the stability of global supply chain and achieve a win-win situation.

Meanwhile, policymakers discussed measures to stabilize the economy and the markets in the face of Trump's tariff onslaught, including whether to accelerate plans to unleash stimulus to bolster consumption.

The measures will focus on boosting consumer spending, birth rate and subsidies for some exports, sources said.

The regulators also discussed details of a stabilization fund to shore up its stock market, they said.

Goldman Sachs projects China's growth would be dragged down by at least 0.7 percentage points, and Citigroup expects China to cut the reserve requirement ratio soon and roll out more stimuli to ride the tariff shock.

For the US, Goldman Sachs has raised the odds of a recession to 45 percent from 35 percent, the second time it has increased its forecast in a week amid a growing chorus of such predictions by investment banks due to an escalating trade war.

Also in response, the European Union wants India to eliminate tariffs on car imports under a long-pending trade deal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is willing to sweeten its current proposal to seal the talks, sources told Reuters.

India is open to the phased reduction of tariffs to 10 percent from more than 100 percent, two industry sources and a government official said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday eased targets forcing automakers in the country to produce more electric vehicles, in an effort to ease pressure on UK businesses from Trump's 25 percent trade tariffs on car imports.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba held a video conference with Trump and said he made it clear that Japan has been investing heavily in the United States for five consecutive years, and asked the president to review the tariffs.