China has played down US President Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods should ongoing talks between the two countries fail to result in a trade agreement.

A spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that China would not be intimidated by such threats and Trump’s trade war would get nowhere.

Geng Shuang made the statement at a news briefing in Beijing in response to a query about Trump’s threat that in case of a no trade deal at the upcoming G20 summit he will slam tariffs on virtually all remaining Chinese imports.

“China has always advocated for resolving trade frictions with the United States through dialogue and consultation, and at the same time resolutely safeguard our own legitimate rights and interests. China is not to be intimidated by the United States’ slamming additional tariffs,” he said.

“The Chinese people are not to be misled by fallacies and refuse to be bent down by pressure. We never buy it,” he asserted.

“I hope the United States would lend a careful ear to the voices of the different US groups and its people against trade war and adding tariffs, and be attentive to what the international community says about multilateralism, protectionism, and bullying at the G20 summit.”

Geng expressed hope that the two sides should meet each other half way, taking into consideration each other’s reasonable concerns.

Trump said Wednesday that he would impose additional tariffs on Beijing if he did not reach a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“I would do additional tariffs, very substantial additional tariffs, if that doesn’t work, if we don’t make a deal,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network.

He left open the possibility that the two leaders could make a deal to avert further tariffs at the G20 summit in Japan this weekend.

China and the United States have been embroiled in trade tensions marked by tit-for-tat tariffs but talks between the two countries broke down in May.

Trump said in the interview China knows what the United States needs to have for a trade deal to go through.

PressTV-Trump threatens to slap another $300bn tariffs on China

US President Donald Trump threatens to impose another 300 billion dollars of tariffs on Chinese goods while also expressing hope for a deal with Beijing.

Trump said if Washington was unable to reach a trade deal with Beijing, his plan was to reduce business with China. Asked about companies relocating production from China to Vietnam, he said Vietnam treated the United States even worse than China.

Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that the trade deal between the United States and China is “about 90 percent” complete, CNBC reported.

“We were about 90 percent of the way there (with a deal) and I think there’s a path to complete this,” Mnuchin said in an interview to the news channel.