China and the European Union have exchanged views on strengthening their economic and trade cooperation in response to US tariffs, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

In a statement, the ministry said China and the EU vowed to jointly uphold the multilateral trading system.

The statement came after Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic held a talk via video on Tuesday, during which they discussed various issues, including enhancing China-EU economic and trade cooperation and responses to the US imposition of so-called "reciprocal tariffs."

Wang urged China and the EU to jointly safeguard the rules-based multilateral trading system and adhere to trade liberalisation and facilitation, "which will inject more stability and certainty into the world economy and global trade", the ministry statement said.

China and EU also discussed creating a more favourable business environment for enterprises and trade transfer issues.

They will continue to strengthen communication under the World Trade Organization framework and jointly promote WTO reform, the ministry statement said.

According to a statement, both sides will immediately carry out negotiations on electric vehicle price commitments.

The EU had imposed tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on China-made electric vehicles at the end of October, on top of the bloc's standard 10 percent car import tariffs.

The Commerce Ministry said last week that the two sides have agreed to restart negotiations on minimum price commitments on Chinese EVs but did not specify when that would resume. (Reuters, additional reporting by Xinhua)