CAIRO, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The United States has initiated a trade conflict against China "unilaterally," a move that is "an assault on the international values," former Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Washington stood against the general world system and tore up hopes of free trade and a growing economy, said Sharaf, who is also a committee member of the Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network.
He termed Washington's unilateralist moves as a violation of the principles of multilateralism, free trade and balanced global economic governance.
"The current U.S. administration is seeking global dominance, and the ongoing trade war is one of its features," Sharaf said.
When Washington hinders free trade and sets some unacceptable conditions and restrictions, it disrupts the world trade movement and the interests of the associated partners, he said.
In the latest flare-up in trade tensions with China, Washington increased additional tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent in May.
The impact of such a move on China will be "manageable," Sharaf said. "Many of the firms affected are American, which ultimately sell products in the United States."
Sharaf said the U.S.-China trade tensions in the short term will lead to some damage to China, the United States and the whole world, but in the long run China will gain more solidarity from other countries which appreciate China's win-win principle.
"Things will change in the long run. America will be one of the biggest countries harmed by the trade war," Sharaf said, adding that big resistance would rise inside the United States, because the employment sector has seen big losses.
The current U.S. administration's moves are based on exercising its dominance and intervention in other countries' internal affairs while China sticks to peaceful coexistence and non-interference, which is clearly observed by the world and seen as a contrast between the two countries, according to Sharaf.
China upholds "very important principles of non-interference and calls for a world full of prosperity and common win-win," Sharaf added.
