OREANDA-NEWS  China is ready for an honest and equal dialogue with the United States to resolve trade disputes, but Beijing intends to continue to strongly defend its rights and interests, Chinese foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a briefing on Tuesday.

"We have repeatedly stressed that the trade and economic cooperation between China and the United States is mutually beneficial in nature, we are ready to resolve the existing contradictions with the American side through negotiations on the basis of equality, sincerity and honesty," the diplomat said on the eve of the meeting of the leaders of the two countries at the G20 summit.

At the same time, he said, "China will remain steadfast in protecting its legitimate rights and interests."

Geng Shuang also recalled that in a recent telephone conversation, Chinese President XI Jinping and US President Donald Trump agreed that the parties need to reach a solution to trade problems that will be acceptable to both the US and China.

"The meeting of the leaders will take place in the near future, and we hope that the United States will work together with the Chinese side to ensure that it brings positive results," said Geng Shuang.

The G20 summit will be held in Argentina on November 30 - December 1, it is expected that there will be a meeting of Chinese President XI Jinping and US President Donald Trump. Last week Trump said he would not rule out the possibility of concluding a trade agreement with China within the framework of this meeting, however, in his interview to the newspaper the Wall Street Journal on Monday called it "unlikely" that he would accept China's proposal not to raise tariffs on Chinese imports cost $ 200 billion from the current 10% to 25%.

The trade war between China and the United States began after the mutual increased customs duties between these States entered into force on July 6, 2018. The US imposed a duty of 25% on imports of 818 items from China with a total supply of 34 billion dollars a year.

As a counter-measure, China imposed a 25% duty on imports of an equivalent volume of us goods on the same day. At the end of September, new us duties of 10% on goods from China with an import volume of $ 200 billion a year came into force. China introduced in response to the fee at the rate of 10% and 5% on American imports with a volume of $ 60 billion.