The government and opposition have found common ground as Australia’s concerns over potential “tit-for-tat” trade wars instigated by the United States increase.

Both the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, and the trade minister, Steve Ciobo, have spoken of their growing discomfort with events in global trade, after the US promised to add $34bn worth of tariffs against China from 6 July, and flagged another $16bn down the track.

On Saturday China responded to the US tariffs by announcing 25% tariffs on $50bn in US goods, including agricultural produce, autos and seafood.

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In a statement on its website, the Chinese commerce ministry said: “China is unwilling to have a trade war, but the Chinese side has no choice but to strongly oppose this, due to the United States’ myopic behaviour that will harm both parties.”

It also called on other countries to “take collective action” against this “outdated and backwards behaviour”.

Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday morning, the Labor senator Penny Wong said the US decision was “a bad thing, a very negative development”.

“It is a negative development because it strikes at the integrity of the world trading system which has served the world well, which has ensure disputes are managed and contained, which has ensured that we don’t get into escalating economic fights,” she said. “I think it is a negative thing because trade, conflict in the trading relationship, risks some instability in the broader bilateral relationship.”

Wong said both Australia’s major parties shared the same views on the importance of trading relationships and that “we have to continue to assert why the trading system matters and we have to continue to try and ensure that this doesn’t escalate”.

On Saturday, Bishop said she was concerned over the “tit-for-tat” nature of the trade measures but said Australia had made its position clear.

“It is of concern and Australia will continue to advocate for free and open trade and investment because that is of great benefit to our country and free trade has benefitted the world,” she said. “It is a position that we have made very clear to our American friends and will continue to promote free and open trade and investment.”

Ciobo said the tariffs would “provide a further drag on global growth”, adding one-third of Australia’s GDP growth had come from growing the export market in Singapore, China and Japan.

“As we see these trade barriers go up on both sides – China, the United States, Canada, the United States, Mexico, the United States, Europe and the United Stated – these are drags on opportunities to create employment,” he said.

Wong and Bishop recently returned from a bipartisan trip to the Pacific islands, where Australia is working to establish its place as the region’s No 1 ally, after concerns over Beijing’s attempts at “soft diplomacy” through infrastructure projects and concessional loans began to grow.

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The nation’s foreign aid budget was frozen for the coming year but just over $1bn of the $4bn or so allocated for aid will be spent in the Pacific, while Australia is also majority funding a telecommunications cable to the Solomons and Papua New Guinea, after security chiefs raised concerns over Chinese firm Huawei being awarded the original contract.

Wong said she would not discuss Australia’s security advice but gave the reminder that China “doesn’t have the same separation between government and the economy, government and the community that we assume”.

With the parliament set to pass its foreign interference and anti-spying laws in the coming weeks, after Labor indicated it would support the amended legislation, Wong said she believed it was possible for Australia to stand up for its sovereignty “without being offensive, without hyperbole and without exaggeration”.

“I think being responsible, having some wisdom, having some judgment, having some tact in how you talk about some of these issues is important and also being precise,” she said.

“For example, some of the debates around foreign investment, more generally at times, I think has been problematic. I think we ... should remember we are a country that has always benefitted greatly from the rise of China.

“Its fuelled much of our growth over the last decade. What is important here is we have a deep relationship with China. We have a strong economic relationship with China. It’s a relationship where there are differences, there are areas where our interests converge.”