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China’s Ministry of Commerce has summoned executives at Walmart over reports the US retailer asked its suppliers to cut prices in response to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, according to state media.
The discussions, reported on Wednesday by a social media account affiliated with state-run China Central Television, highlight mounting geopolitical risks for big US companies in China.
“Chinese companies shall not bear the blame for US tariffs,” the Yuyuantantian account, a frequent source of official commentary on trade, said in a post on the social media site Weibo.
Walmart has expanded its presence in China in recent years despite a wider slowdown in domestic consumer demand, and its US stores rely heavily on goods imported from the world’s second-largest economy.
US companies have been struggling to avoid the fallout from tariffs announced since Trump’s inauguration as president in January. The new administration initially introduced an additional tariff rate of 10 per cent on imports from China, then doubled it to 20 per cent last week.
Escalating trade tensions with Washington have prompted a host of countermeasures by Beijing. As well as implementing retaliatory tariffs on US exports of energy and agricultural goods this week, China has also increasingly targeted American companies in the country.
Chinese authorities added clothing maker PVH, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, to an “unreliable entity list” in February alongside California-based biotech group Illumina, and launched an antitrust investigation into Google.
The move represented the first time US companies with substantial interests on the ground in China had been blacklisted on national security grounds, and prompted a wave of concern through international business communities in Beijing and Shanghai.
Earlier this month, China added 10 US companies to the list. All had sold arms to Taiwan or been involved with military technology co-operation with the island, state media said then, citing the commerce ministry.
Walmart said its “purpose is to help people save money and live better. Our conversations with suppliers are all aimed at making our purpose a reality for millions of customers, and we will continue to work closely with them to find the best way forward during these uncertain times.”
The commerce ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Yuyuantantian report. Bloomberg reported last week that Walmart had asked makers of kitchenware and clothing in China to cut prices by 10 per cent.
Walmart has a presence in more than 100 cities in mainland China and is well-known in the country for its popular Sam’s Club, a chain of membership-only warehouse stores. In the quarter to January 31, its sales after returns, allowances and discounts in China were $5.1bn, up 28 per cent from the previous year.
Walmart sold its stake in JD.com, one of China’s biggest ecommerce platforms, for $3.6bn last August to focus on expanding its own brands.
Additional reporting by Gregory Meyer in New York