Decoupling with China not in the interest of U.S. business community: Singaporean paper

SINGAPORE, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Decoupling with China is certainly not in the interest of the U.S. business community, a Singaporean daily has reported.

It is unlikely that either China or the United States is as keen to decouple as the latest developments between Beijing and Washington may suggest, said Yu Yongding, a former president of the China Society of World Economics and director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in an article in The Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.

The article, titled The Decoupling Prophecy, was published by the Project Syndicate earlier.

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently reported, "American companies would lose hundreds of billions of dollars if they slashed investment in China or the nations increased tariffs," he said.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai argued recently that, far from decoupling - which "isn't a realistic outcome" - the United States is pursuing "recoupling."

Some recoupling is already happening, Yu pointed out. As the U.S.-China Business Council reported, after the two countries signed the Phase One trade agreement in 2020, both sides halted tariff escalations. Furthermore, China instituted a "robust system of tariff exclusions" with the United States also instituting some exclusions.

This has contributed to a rebound in bilateral trade. In 2020, U.S. goods exports to China grew by roughly 18 percent, more than making up for the tariff-driven drop of more than 11 percent in 2019. With that, China has retained its position as the third-largest market for U.S. goods exports, Yu noted.

China has also been maintaining -- or even deepening -- its ties with the rest of the global economy, he said, adding that China's inbound FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in 2020 grew by more than 10 percent, putting its share of global FDI at an all-time high of one-quarter, almost twice its share in 2019.