Play by WTO rules, please

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Play by WTO rules, please

The United States' reckless erection of protectionist barriers menaces not only its trade relations with China but also the fragile recovery of the global economy.

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The United States' reckless erection of protectionist barriers menaces not only its trade relations with China but also the fragile recovery of the global economy.

Last Friday the US forced anti-dumping duties on Chinese iron pipe fittings after the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently issued a final ruling against extra tariffs the Americans imposed on an array of steel imports last year.

This unilateral act dealt another heavy blow to the Sino-US trade relations which has witnessed a 40-fold increase in trade volume over the past quarter of a century. Just three days ago, the Bush administration shocked China by announcing it will impose import quotas on Chinese textiles.

After a series of failed US efforts to press a revaluation of renminbi, the Chinese currency, such protectionism revealed only the obstinacy of some American politicians to base trade policies on politics rather than economics.

The huge trade imbalance between the two countries is indeed a great cause for concern, as both sides readily admit.

In his recent interview with the Washington Post, Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the Chinese Government's sincerity for handling the problem properly in the belief that expansion of trade and economic co-operation serves the fundamental interests of both peoples.

After going to great lengths to explain the causes of the trade surplus China operates over the United States in the light of the realities of the Chinese economy and globalization, Wen offered a far-sighted proposal to establish a mechanism for regular co-ordination and co-operation.

Unfortunately, his gesture of good will appears to have fallen on deaf ears as some US politicians insist on protecting the domestic industries from which they can net political support for next year's presidential election.

In fact, unfair US anti-dumping surcharges on Chinese exports can achieve little in revamping those industries unable to catch up with the pace of the US economy's restructuring in the era of globalization.

Instead, it can do much harm by depriving US consumers of cheap but competitive imports and discouraging China from further reducing the trade imbalance with the United States via better trade relations.

More threatening is that the bad example the United States has set in pursuing protectionism could hobble the global economy, which has just managed to step out of recession.

The message the international community urgently needs to drive home to the United States is simple: Stop playing with the WTO rules, play by them. (China Daily News)

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