Xi Jinping says global free trade ‘under attack’ as US-China trade war continues

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the global free trade system was “under attack” and promised to cut import tariffs and open its economy.

In a speech at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), Xi appeared to attack US President Donald Trump amid a trade war between the world's two largest economies.

“Multilateralism and the free trade system is under attack, factors or instability and uncertainty are numerous, and risks and obstacles are increasing,” Xi said.

“With the deepening development today of economic globalisation, 'the weak falling prey to the strong' and 'winner takes all' are dead-end alleys,” he added.

Xi and Trump are set to meet at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month – Trump has previously said if a deal is not made he could impose tariffs on a further $267bn (£206bn) worth of goods.

The CIIE will be attended by thousands of foreign companies as well as Chinese buyers over the next six days.

Delivering the event's opening speech, Xi promised to lower tariffs and open up China's market to the world.

Xi also said he expected China to import $30tn worth of goods and $10tn worth of services in the next 15 years, an increase on his previous estimate of $24tn of goods.

Earlier on Monday the value of export orders to the US signed at China's largest trade fair – Canton fair – dropped more than 30 per cent on the year.

The US has imposed extra tariffs of 10 per cent to 25 per cent on $250bn of Chinese goods this year.

On Saturday Trump said a trade deal between the two countries was getting closer but his senior economic adviser had contradicted that assessment just hours earlier.

The comments follow on from months of tit-for-tat actions taken both by Washington and Beijing, which has amounted to billions of pounds' worth of tariffs being imposed on exported goods.