Opinion

Trade war is no option

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-10 15:09

On Monday, Vice-Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan played down that rising trade disputes between China and the United States will be a mainstay of bilateral ties.

The goodwill remark was meant to prevent current trade frictions between the two large economies from escalating into a full-blown trade war that will certainly cripple the fragile global recovery.

However, US policymakers should not misread it as fuel to give them free play to rising protectionism within their country.

As the biggest victim of trade protectionism, China stands firmly against trade protectionism as well as the abuse of trade remedy measures. Last year alone, the country was involved in 116 cases of trade protectionism, amounting to $12.7 billion.

But the great protectionist pressure imposed on China has not changed its long-term support for free trade and investment liberalization. China has time and again made clear its hopes to properly solve trade disputes and trade frictions through dialogue and consultation, and to strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

Thanks to joint efforts by the international community to fight protectionism, the worst global recession in decades has so far not given rise to disastrous trade wars that can make the situation much worse.

Yet, as the global recovery continues, the sense of urgency to resist protectionism is ostensibly waning in developed countries, especially those with climbing unemployment.

Because an unemployment recovery is simply unsustainable, US policymakers facing a near 10-percent jobless rate have recently made concessions to more and more domestic interest groups by erecting trade barriers against Chinese exporters.

As a result, China and the US have been engaged in rising trade conflicts ever since Washington's car tire ruling last September.

Since this January, the US has made China's exports of wire decking products, electric blankets and drill pipe used for oil wells targets of anti-dumping duties or anti-subsidy investigations.

The latest symbolic response from China was last Friday's announcement that preliminary anti-dumping duties would be imposed on broiler chicken imports from the US.

Such an exchange of fire accomplishes little for both economies.

China is the third largest export market for the US and has been the fastest growing market for years. If America is to double its exports in five years as its president has pledged, an all-out trade war with China will make no sense and the consequences will be unaffordable for both sides.

That is why Chinese policymakers are trying to get rising trade disputes under control.

We hope that the US side will get the message right.