UK bank official says 'no winner' in trade war

No winner will emerge from a trade war between the US and China, said Bill Winters, a group chief executive at Standard Chartered Bank, on the sidelines of the China Development Forum in Beijing on Sunday.

"We are of the view that free and fair trade is the most important ingredient for any bilateral relationship, and no one wins a trade war," Winters said during an interview with China Daily.

He believes the trade war will have some impact on the GDP growth of China and the US, but in both cases the impact will be very small.

"The concern will be if this trade war escalates and potentially brings in other countries, or becomes a much more targeted approach from the United States to somehow contain the overall growth of China, that could impact the overall level of economic growth in both countries and could pretty severely disrupt the supply chain, in particular for American companies but also for other Asian companies," he said.

"We are very hopeful that the US and China will find a way to reconcile in a way that will allow what has been a very mutual and beneficial trading relationship to continue to grow," he added.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China.

Trade between the the world's two largest economies exceeded $580 billion in 2017, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.