Chinese Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Sun Zhenyu on
Wednesday voiced China's concerns over U.S. trade policies and urged the United
States to respond to those concerns.
"While we have full confidence in further developing the bilateral economic
and trade relations, China has some concerns about U.S. trade policies," Sun
told a World Trade Organisation (WTO) review of U.S. trade policy in the past
two years.
He said China's major concerns include the "twin deficits" of trade and
finance, fulfillment of transparency obligations, fair implementation of
anti-dumping measures and foreign investment restrictions in the service sector.
According to the ambassador, the United States, the most frequent user of the
WTO dispute settlement mechanism, is always quick to demand compliance from
others when WTO rulings are in its favor, but fails to meet WTO "prompt
compliance" requirement when rulings are against its interests.
He also accused the U.S. of undermining the world trading system by using
national security concerns "in an excessive way" to get around the rules, saying
that had significantly affected the normal operation of international trade and
foreign direct investment (FDI) flows.
"Recently the U.S. exerted pressure and imposed restrictions on inward FDI on
account of national security, which prevent foreign companies from seeking
merger and acquisition within the country. These have dealt heavy blows to
members' confidence in the business environment of the U.S.," he said.
"By interpreting and applying WTO national security clauses in an excessive
way, it has again seriously undermined the credibility of the multilateral trade
regime, over which China is highly concerned," he stressed.
The ambassador also pointed out that it was not wise for the U.S. to restrict
the export of high-tech products to China, as it had deprived many American
high-tech enterprises of the opportunities to do business with China.
"This policy not only harmed the interests of American exporters, but also
made trade deficit situation even worse between the two countries," he said.
The ambassador also criticized the frequent use of anti-dumping measures by
the U.S., noting that quite a number of those practices are not consistent with
WTO anti-dumping rules.
He also urged the U.S. to assume greater responsibility in pushing forward
the Doha round of global trade negotiations, which is expected to conclude by
the end of this year but still faces huge challenges.
The U.S. should make further steps forward in cutting domestic support for
agriculture, thereby making due contributions to the progress of the Doha round
negotiations, he said.
All WTO member undergo periodic reviews of their trade policies by the
Geneva-based trade body, and China was not the only one to express concerns over
the U.S. trade policy, especially its use of national security concerns as a
reason to block trade deals.
The European Union, the United States' biggest trading partner, noted that
there was a need to strike "a better balance" between security concerns and
avoiding "unnecessary and costly burdens" to legitimate business in a statement
to the WTO.