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Thursday, April 19, 2007
Abstract from “China conveys regret over trade complain”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/business/worldbusiness/
11yuan.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=business
HONG KONG, Wednesday, April 11 — The Chinese government expressed “deep regret and strong dissatisfaction” on Tuesday with the Bush administration’s decision to file two complaints against China with the World Trade Organization.
Separately, it released statistics showing that Chinese exports grew last month at the slowest pace in five years, but that hardly tempered the entire first-quarter surplus, which doubled from the previous year.
The Chinese reaction to the trade complaints was slightly stronger than China’s statement on March 31 regarding American duties on imported paper. That statement expressed “strong dissatisfaction,” but did not mention “deep regret.”
The American decision to complain to the W.T.O. “will seriously undermine the cooperative relations the two nations have established in the field and will adversely affect bilateral trade,” Wang Xinpei, a Commerce Ministry spokesman, said in a statement on the ministry’s Web site.
An editorial in the official China Daily newspaper on Wednesday took the toughest Chinese position yet, warning that, “In fact, actions against China could trigger an outbreak of massive protectionism that could seriously undermine global economic growth.”
China’s customs agency released statistics Tuesday showing that Chinese exports to the rest of the world grew last month at the slowest pace in five years, rising just 6.9 percent from a year earlier. Correspondingly, the country’s trade surplus narrowed to $6.9 billion in March, from $23.8 billion in February.
But the surplus for the entire first quarter doubled from a year earlier, to $46.4 billion. And economists predicted that the surplus would continue to rise and dismissed the importance of the slowdown in March.
“So, in our view, this number will do nothing, zilch, nada, to address political concerns in the U.S. about China’s overall trade surplus,” Stephen Green, an economist in the Shanghai offices of Standard Chartered Bank, wrote in a research note.
The deceleration followed a slowdown of exports from the major Southeast Asian economies: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. That has prompted some in Asia to worry whether industrialized countries were losing some of their appetite for Asian goods.
But economists said that last month’s slowing of exports from China was probably temporary, a result of short-term events.
Facing criticism from Congress that more should be done to address the widening United States trade deficit with China, the Bush administration announced Monday that it would file complaints with the W.T.O. The complaints, which were lodged at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday, accuse China of tolerating widespread violations of trademarks and copyrights and of unfairly limiting the importation of books, journals, movies, videos and music to state-owned companies.
The Commerce Ministry in China posted its response on its Web site at midday Tuesday, an unusually quick move by the Chinese government’s standards.
Mr. Wang denied the American allegations, saying that “the Chinese government has always been firm in protecting intellectual property.” He added that until now, China and the United States had been “in good communication and consultation with each other over access to the Chinese publication market.’
China is far more dependent on exports for economic growth than any other large country, and it has shown reluctance to be drawn into a broad dispute with the United States.
Related article: US files 2 WTO cases against China
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070410/ap_on_bi_ge/us_china_trade_
29;_ylt=AiJRyWw4norrt21ugeOWIcj.ucsA
Reflection:
This article deeply reflected the effect of globalization on individual nation’s economy. As the temperature of globalization continuously rises up, the economies of different countries are connected more and more closely. Individual states are no longer developing the economy within their own states. They import goods and services from other countries and export goods and services into other countries. Different countries’ economies are closely connected. Once one state has some problems coupling with its businesses, other countries would “meet with disaster” as well.
As this article said, America has decided to accuse China of tolerating widespread violations of trademarks and copyrights. America did so as china’s loose control of the copyrights and trade marks severely hurt her own economy. According to another article called “US files 2 WTO cases against China”, American companies were losing billions of dollars annually from piracy levels in china that remains “unacceptably high”. And “the America’s imbalance with China grew to $232.5 billion, the highest ever with a single country.” Since America’s benefits were severely hurt, the “protectionist moves” against China by the Bush administration were very dense recently. Filing cases against China to WTO is only the latest movement.
And of course, China hasn’t benefited from America’s accuse. According to this article, “Chinese exports to the rest of the world grew last month at the slowest pace in five years, rising just 6.9 percent from a year earlier. Correspondingly, the country’s trade surplus narrowed to $6.9 billion in March, from $23.8 billion in February”. Although Chinese government has lots of reasons for the decrease in exports and claimed that it would only be temporary as the entire first-quarter surplus doubled from the last year, what must be admitted is that these claims and the “protectionist moves” against china by the Bush administration would severely affect china’ s economy in the future. Just as what Wang Xinpei- a Commerce Ministry spokesman said, “The American decision to complain to the W.T.O. will seriously undermine the cooperative relations the two nations have established in the field and will adversely affect bilateral trade.” If the cooperative relationships between china and US are affected, the outcomes would be destructive, not only to china, but also to US, since both countries are very important economical cooperators to each other. The article said very correctly: “China is far more dependent on exports for economic growth than any other large country, and it has shown reluctance to be drawn into a broad dispute with the United States.”
Again, according to the article “US files 2 WTO cases against China”, the US submissions Tuesday trigger a 60-day consultation period during which trade negotiators from both countries will try to resolve the two disputes. If that fails, the US can ask for the WTO to establish investigative panels. I sincerely hope these two countries would adjust the disputes peacefully without triggering any destructive economical or political problems since it is true that “actions against China could trigger an outbreak of massive protectionism that could seriously undermine global economic growth.”
Minyun_Economic Expert
Globalised @ 2:19 PM
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