American Treasury Secretary Basant: US has more advantages in the trade war with China and is not worried about commodity shortages for now.

American Treasury Secretary Basant said on Monday, April 28th, that despite the escalating trade war between China and the United States, he is currently not concerned about "shortages of supermarket goods" in the U.S. due to high tariffs imposed on China. He emphasized that the U.S. is clearly in a more advantageous position in this trade competition.

Agence France-Presse reported that during an interview with Fox News Channel on Monday, when asked if he was worried about material shortages or empty supermarket shelves in the U.S. due to the trade war, Basant replied: "Not at least for now."

Basant stated that the U.S. has a group of excellent retailers who have already placed advance orders and increased inventory reserves; additionally, with supply chain adjustments, more substitute products will appear on the market. Basant added that the future situation will depend on whether China will quickly take measures to ease tensions.

Basant pointed out that the current high tariff state between the U.S. and China actually forms a two-way "trade blockade," and he repeatedly emphasized that this situation is "unsustainable."

In a further interview with CNBC on Monday, Basant emphasized again that the U.S. holds the upper hand in this trade conflict. He noted: "The amount of goods China exports to us is five times what we export to China. The American market is crucial to China's economic model, and selling goods to the U.S. is an important support for their economic growth."

Basant frankly stated that considering this huge trade imbalance, if China hopes to protect its own economy, it must actively seek to cool down the situation. Basant said: "I think the current situation in China is unsustainable, maybe they will call me one day."

Basant also mentioned that recently, China has exempted some American goods from retaliatory tariffs, which is seen as a signal from China to ease trade tensions. He pointed out that the U.S. side has also chosen to avoid further escalation in certain areas, such as not imposing stricter embargoes on these goods, to create more opportunities to cool down the trade war.

Regarding whether there are plans to proactively contact the Chinese finance minister to initiate a new round of negotiations, Basant responded: "We will wait and see." He added: "Currently, all departments of the U.S. government are maintaining contact with China, but the responsibility to ease tensions mainly lies with the Chinese side."

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830696891000841/

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