His comments come after suggestions that US President Donald Trump was poised to announce new annual tariffs of up to £42.7billion ($60billion) on Chinese technology and consumer goods.
Mr Keqiang urged the US to avoid acting “emotionally”.
He told reporters after China’s annual parliament session: “No one will emerge a winner from a trade war.
“We hope that both parties can maintain reason, not act emotionally, and avoid a trade war.
“China’s economy has been so integrated with the world’s, that closing China’s door would mean blocking our way for development.”
He also hinted that there could be future incentives for foreign investors, suggesting that in future China would open up its economy and allow foreign and domestic firms to compete on an equal footing.
He also hinted that there could be future incentives for foreign investors, suggesting that in future China would open up its economy and allow foreign and domestic firms to compete on an equal footing.
He added: “China’s aim is to ensure that both domestic and foreign firms, and companies under all kinds of ownership structure, to be able to compete on fair terms in China’s large market.”
Mr Keqiang said Beijing planned to “further bring down overall tariffs”, with “zero tariffs for drugs, especially much-needed anti-cancer drugs”.
He added: “We will also fully open the manufacturing sector. There will be no mandatory requirement for technology transfers and intellectual property rights will be better protected.”
At the start of this month, Mr Trump announced global tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.
In addition, he is expected to announce further duties on a range of other goods.
The move is seen as retaliation for what Mr Trump believes is Beijing’s insistence that US companies to transfer their intellectual property to China as a cost of doing business there.
Intellectual property can consist of trademarks, trade secrets and even source code for computer programs.