Uphold the principles of fair trade and win-win

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China and the United States have become each other' s second trade partner since 2006, with a good momentum evident in bilateral trade over recent years. Their cooperation has also witnessed a fast expansion in investment, services and other sectors. Under such circumstances, any trade protection measure to take the other side as the target will not only impair the other side but harm itself as well.
Recently, a few executive departments in the U.S. have launched unfair antidumping and anti-subsidy probes against China, some Congressmen tabled the China-related bills with a strong coloring of trade protectionism, and some US media reports unduly exaggerated the issue of China product quality and food safety. These moves have drawn the attention of people worldwide.
On the antidumping and anti-subsidy issue: According to statistics available from the Chinese side, after the first-US-initiated antidumping cases against China, the U.S. has launched more than 120 antidumping cases against the country, or 16.3 percent of the total number of such cases targeted against China all over the world. While resorting to such practices, the U.S. often takes China as a non-market economy in disregard of the tremendous achievement it has attained in its market economy reform.
From November 2006 to July this year, the United States launched joint probes into five antidumping and anti-subsidy cases of glossy paper, steel pipes, composite knitting bags and tyres for non-highway use. The US Department of Commerce, reversing more than two decades of practice, preliminarily decided on March 30 this year to levy 10.9 percent to 20.4 percent anti-subsidy tax on China-made glossy paper.
On China-related economy and trade bills: Till August 2007, the 110th Congress, First Session, Legislation related to China, has raised more than 30 China-related bills, which include, among others, China trade bills, trade deficit with China, the Renminbi (RMB) exchange rate, anti-dumping probe, food safety, market access, trade subsidy, intellectual property protection, China' s implementation of commitment to WTO and China market status.
Nine bills are related to the RMB exchange rate alone. The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on July 26 and August 1, 2007 passed the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act (2007) and the Currency Reform and Financial Market Access Act (2007).
As a matter of fact, the RMB exchange rate against the U.S. dollar had risen by close to 10 percent between July 2005 and August of 2007. Some ace US economists, however, acknowledged that the adjustment of China' s currency exchange rate alone could not solve the trade imbalance between the two countries.
On China' s product quality and food safety issue: The question of product quality and food safety poses a common challenge for the entire world. As a big responsible developing nation, China has attached great importance to the product quality and safety. Its government has formulated close to 80 commodity quality and safety laws, codes and regulations along with 660 sets of hygienic state criteria on food safety. Not long ago, the State Council, or the central government, promulgated its Special Regulations on the Safety Supervision and Administration of foods and other products.
Meanwhile, relevant statistics from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have indicated that the qualification rate of the US food imports from China was 99 percent, 99 percent and 99.2 percent. Statistics from the US and ITC have also shown that China was not the country with the most batches of food import ferreted out at ports in the U.S.
With regard to those commodities, which indeed have a few problems, the Chinese government will carry out serious, conscientious probes into any of them instead of concealing or evading responsibility, and impose punitive means on those units (or individuals) held responsible in compliance with related laws. At present, it has resorted to tougher and still more strict supervisory and managerial measures.
History can serve as a mirror. The Tariff Act of 1930, or the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act was signed into law on June 17, 1930, and raised US tariffs on more than 2,000 imported goods to record level and, in the opinion of most countries then, worsened the Great Depression in the United States. This prompted the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt to practise New Deals and break with economic nationalism and economic isolation and spur the post-war global free trade liberalization.
At present, there are 57 million Americans working on various kinds of jobs relating to international grade, and those working with transnational firms usually earn 20 percent more than ordinary Americans in the U.S.
People should never forget 1,028 American economists 77 years ago were in opposition to the signing the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act with a rich coloring of the trade protectionism. On August 1 this year, the Wall Street Journal carried an article signed jointly by another group of 1,028 economists including Nobel Prize winners, former Congressmen and former treasure secretary from around the 50 US states to petition Capital Hill on the same issue. If these Congressmen insist on trade protection measures, they are meant to strip American consumers off the benefits they obtain from the Sino-US trade.
China has become the fastest growing market for US exports. Sino-US trade value rose at an average annual rate of 23 percent in the past five years and the US'' export value to China increased at a yearly rate of 24 percent during the same period, according to figures released by the American side.
Every year, China has imported a large amount of machinery and electronic products, medical apparatuses and equipment, aeroplanes and automobiles. To date, it has purchased 628 Boeing planes, or 60 percent of its passenger plane fleet. According to estimates by the Boeing Company, China is expected to purchase additional 3,140 planes by 2025 worldwide, so it will provide a huge market for Boeing.
Moreover, American farmers also benefit from the US' s China trade. China is the US'' biggest buyer of soybeans and cotton. In 2006, it imported 9.88 million tons of soybean and 1.71 million tons of cotton from the U.S., 38 percent and 46 percent of the US total export volumes respectively in the year. Furthermore, the US service industry also benefits from its trade with China.
Meanwhile, American firms certainly reciprocate with handsome rewards. The total amount of profits made by the US-funded firms in China reached approximately 10 billion US dollars in 2006. According to survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham-China), 73 percent of U.S.-funded companies believe they earn profits, 60 percent 0of them saw their profits increasing, and 37 percent say the profits in China higher than average global ratio, and 51 percent of U.S. invested firms prefer to have its first presence in China over the next five years. In 2006, the total sales volume of US-funded firms on China' s domestic market reached about 80 billion US dollars.
Along with the continous expansion of the scale in Sino-US economic and trade cooperation, some frictions and disputes, however, are natural and hard to avoid. But it should be noted clearly that both China and the U.S., as important members of the global economic setup, have their own division of work. Therefore, it is in the fundamental interests of both sides to enhance cooperation, step up consultations and appropriately resolve the existing problems in the course of development.
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