China’s Li says tariff consequences increasingly evident

BEIJING: China’s Premier Li Qiang said on Tuesday the “mutually destructive consequences of tariffs have become increasingly evident” over 2025, in remarks at a “1+10 Dialogue” including the heads of the IMF, World Trade Organization and World Bank.

Without naming US President Donald Trump, China’s second-highest ranking official told the meeting in Beijing that greater effort was needed to reform global economic governance due to the trade barriers.

China’s trade surplus topped $1 trillion for the first time in November, trade data showed on Monday, which economists say is linked to Trump’s tariffs diverting shipments from the world’s second-largest economy to other markets, putting pressure on manufacturing sectors in those economies.

“Since the beginning of the year, the threat of tariffs has loomed over the global economy,” Li told the meeting, which also includes senior officials from the OECD and International Labour Organization.

Li also said artificial intelligence is becoming central to trade, highlighting models such as China’s DeepSeek as drivers of the global transformation of traditional industries and as catalysts for growth in new sectors, including smart robots and wearable devices.