China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a statement Monday saying the U.S has abruptly suspended negotiations of the Information Technology Agreement, calling Washington’s action irresponsible.

On Thursday, the U.S decided to drop out of ITA negotiations, an agreement participated by 78 countries, and covering tax exemptions on about 200 items, and trade volume valued at 452 billion U.S dollars.

According to China’s Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, the U.S withdrew after China refused to grant tax exemptions on several of their products. He said the action of abandoning agreements that the ITA members had already achieved, and ignoring member nations’ contributions is irresponsible. He said demand made by the U.S has far exceeded Chinese companies’ level of acceptance.

However, he also said it’s not the end of the conversation yet, and hopes all stakeholders can come back to the negotiation table. ITA is a multilateral agreement under the World Trade Organisation, its member countries have taken up 97 percent of export quotas of the world’s IT products. China joined the talks in 2012.

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