GENEVA: Chinese Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Sun Zhenyu
voiced China's concerns on Wednesday over US trade policies and urged the United
States to respond to these concerns.
"While we have full confidence in further developing bilateral economic and
trade relations, China holds some concerns about US trade policies," Sun told a
WTO review which is looking at US trade policies over the past two years.
An export port in
Nanjing is seen in this photo taken on January 1, 2006.
[newsphoto/file] |
He said China's major concerns include the "twin deficits" of trade and
finance, fulfilment 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 favour, but fails to meet WTO "prompt
compliance" requirements when rulings are against its interests.
He also accused the US of undermining the world trading system by using
national security concerns "in an excessive way" to get around the rules, saying
that this had significantly affected the flow of international trade operations
and foreign direct investment (FDI). "Recently the US exerted pressure and
imposed restrictions on incoming FDI, on account of national security, which
prevents foreign companies from seeking mergers and acquisitions within the
country. These restrictions have dealt heavy blows to members' confidence in the
business environment of the US," 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 pointed out that it was not wise for the US to restrict the
export of high-tech products to China, as it had deprived many American
high-tech enterprises of the opportunity to do business with China.
"This policy not only harmed the interests of American exporters, but made
trade deficit situations even worse between the two countries."
The ambassador also criticized the frequent use of anti-dumping measures by
the US, noting that quite a number of those practices were not consistent with
WTO anti-dumping rules.
He also urged the US 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 US 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 members 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 US 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.