China is seeking a "constructive solution" to avert a trade war with the United States that would harm the global economy, Chinese central bank governor Yi Gang said Sunday in Indonesia.
"A constructive solution is better than a trade war where everyone is lost," the governor of the People's Bank of China said at a seminar of central bank governors and senior officials in Bali.
"The whole world should look for a solution to the trade tensions," which are not only dangerous for China, but also "for our neighbors and catering networks," he said.
He stressed that trade disputes "generate negative expectations and negative ambiguity, people are tense and markets do not like it."
China's central bank governor said Beijing would not use the yuan as an "instrument of trade tension" while US President Donald Trump accused China of manipulating its currency.
The seminar, which brings together about 10 governors of central banks on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Bali.
But US Treasury Secretary Stephen Menuchin said on Saturday that trade tension between the world's top two economic powers could ultimately be good for the global economy.
"A more balanced and fair relationship ... would be good for American companies, American workers, Europeans, Japan and all our other allies, and good for China," he said.
Trade disputes have been escalating in recent months between Washington, Beijing, Washington and the Europeans, on the backdrop of tight reciprocal customs duties.
Washington has so far imposed strict customs duties on imported Chinese products worth 250 billion dollars, which Beijing has responded to with a fee of 110 billion dollars of US goods imported to China.
This week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its forecast for global economic growth, citing mounting risks, primarily those stemming from the US-China trade dispute.
Talks are being held to arrange a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in November to seek an agreement, but nothing has been confirmed so far.
