China tried to ease concerns on Monday that the trade war with the United States would take a heavy toll on its economic growth.
Policy makers expressed confidence that the 5% GDP growth target would be reached and that the lack of agriculture and energy imports from the U.S. wouldn’t materially hit its economy.
“Even if we do not purchase feed grains and oilseeds from the United States, it will not have much impact on our country’s grain supply,” Zhao Chenxin, vice chair of China’s state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said on Monday, as carried by the Financial Times.
Amid the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, in which U.S. President Donald Trump has slapped triple-digit tariffs on Chinese imports into America, China’s top policy bodies and officials sought to reassure the public that the world’s second-largest economy could withstand the tariff war.
“The achievements of the first quarter have laid a solid foundation for the economic development of the whole year,” Zhao further said.
“No matter how the international situation changes, we will anchor our development goals, maintain strategic focus and concentrate on doing our own thing.”
Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its GDP growth estimate for China to 4%, from 4.6% growth expected in January. China itself continues to relay the message that it is confident it will reach its target of 5% growth this year.
Meanwhile, China slashed its imports of many U.S. energy and agricultural commodities in March amid intensifying trade and tariff tensions with the United States, which are set to further reduce Chinese purchases of American goods this month and in the coming months.
China’s LNG imports from the United States crashed to zero in March as China slapped tariffs on American LNG and other energy products, making these uneconomical for Chinese buyers.
Similarly to non-existent LNG, China did not import any wheat from the U.S. in March, per Chinese customs data cited by Bloomberg last week.
Chinese cotton imports from the United States plummeted by 90% in March from a year earlier, while purchases of U.S. corn slumped to a five-year low.
A Chinese official said that the U.S. farm products are “highly substitutable” while no energy imports from America would have a limited impact on China’s oil, gas, and coal supply, Beijing says.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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