TMTPOST -- China, Japan and South Korea officials overseeing economic and trade affairs reached a consensus that three countries should work in close collaboration in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs, according to Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account affiliated with China Central Television (CCTV).

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

In a meeting held on March 30 that both Tokyo and Seoul attached great importance to, the economic and trade ministers of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) expressed their willingness of cooperation, Yuyuan Tantian said in a post at Monday night. As part of issues that are highly concerned in the meeting, officials in attendance agreed to strengthen supply chain cooperation and dialogues on export controls, according to the post.

Yuyuan Tantian learned that Japan and ROK wants to import some semiconductor raw materials from China, and China hopes to have import chip products from these two trading partners. Three countries have a consensus that they hope to keep the supply chain in these areas unimpeded, the social media account said in the post.

Officials at the meeting, namely, the 13th China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting, reportedly discussed accelerating the negotiations on  the  China-Japan-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA). Yuyuan Tantian learned that the trilateral FTA will ask for further opening-up on the basis of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the first free trade agreement among the largest economies in Asia.

China, Japan and South Korea all made it clear that they will hedge against uncertainties including U.S. reciprocal tariffs around the international trade through their cooperation and protection of multilateral trade mechanisms, Yuyuan Tantian said.

The aforementioned meeting is three Eastern Asia countries’ first economic dialogue in five years and their latest efforts to facilitate regional trade in the face of Trump's upcoming new tariffs. The trilateral meeting, focused on topics such as strengthening trade and investment collaboration and advancing regional and multilateral cooperation, was co-chaired by Wang Wentao, ROK's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Duk-geun, and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoji Muto.

At the meeting, the economic and trade departments of the three countries agreed to discuss accelerating negotiations on the trilateral free trade agreement, strengthen supply chain cooperation and dialogue on export control, deepen collaboration in digital and green economies, enhance local cooperation, and jointly foster a favorable environment for business collaboration, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

Amid the downward pressure on the global economy, China, Japan and ROK have to make joint efforts to safeguard free trade and multilateral trading system, oppose unilateralism and protectionism, and advance regional economic integration, Xinhua quoted Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

White House on Monday confirmed Trump will announced detailed reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, April 2. In his first event from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Trump will unveil the reciprocal tariff plan featuring country-based levies and the full cabinet will be present there, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Leavitt declined to provide more details about the upcoming reciprocal tariffs, such as which countries would be subject to these duties and the related tariff rates. But she noted  there are “no exemptions at this time” when asked about whether lower tariffs would be applied to products used by American farmers.

Trump said Sunday night that he would target essentially all U.S. trading partners, while claiming that his tariffs would be “far more generous” than what other countries charge the United States.

The Wall Street Journal on Sunday cited people familiar with the conversations that Trump these days has pushed his team to be more aggressive on the tariff plan, and encouraged them to develop plans with higher tariff rates on a broader set of countries. That reported stance, if it is true, is clearly a U turn on tariffs that are set to kick off on April 2.