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"There is no winner in the trade war. Cooperate, the two countries will benefit. Otherwise, both will be hurt," said Gao Feng, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce at a press conference on Thursday.
U.S. exports to China declined significantly in the past two years due to the U.S.-China trade war, according to U.S.-China Business Council's recent report on American states' exports to China last year.
Before the trade war started in 2018, China was the fastest-growing market for U.S. exports. From 2010 to 2017, U.S. exports of goods to China increased by as much as 41.8 percent, much higher than the increase in U.S. exports in other regions, which is 19.4 percent, said Gao.
However, the trade disputes dragged down the increase in U.S. exports to China from 2010 to 2019 to only 16 percent, while the increase to the rest of the world turned to 29 percent, he said.
Gao said the two nations should seize the opportunity to implement the phase one trade agreement, follow the same direction, strengthen their cooperation and manage their differences. He also said they should look to reduce the instability in their bilateral economic and trade relations, avoid taking new measures to limit trade and investments, and propel the healthy and steady development of the economic ties.
Maintaining the stability of the two countries' economies and helping the global economy to recover as soon as possible are essential during the coronavirus outbreak.
The ministry also released the statistics on China's online retail sales in the first quarter of this year. The nation's total online retail sales reached 2.2 trillion yuan, about 310 billion U.S. dollars, down 0.8 percent from the same period last year.
However, online retail sales are playing a more significant role in national consumption than a year ago. It took 23.6 percent of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods. The markets operated steadily from January to March, with medicines, tobacco and alcohol, grain and cooking oil, going up by 20 percent.
The market supply was also sufficient, with a boom in the purchase of agricultural products. Online retail sales of agricultural products reached 93.7 billion yuan, or 13.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 31 percent year on year.
Online stores have also been steadily reopening. Ninety percent of the country's 3.5 million major online retail stores have reopened. Selling goods through livestream promotion has also become popular. The number of livestreams surpassed four million, and over 100 heads of counties and cities participated in livestreams to promote their local products.
(CGTN)
