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US needs economic reality check
2003-10-30
China Daily
Efforts by US Commerce Secretary Don Evans to find fault with China's trade policies will not help US economy.
During his visit to Beijing, Mr Evans has taken every opportunity to express his government's mounting dissatisfaction over its trade deficit with China.
Given the growing political pressure over loss of jobs in the United States, which was falsely attributed to imports from China, such harsh rhetoric, though unreasonable, is understandable.
But finger-pointing is of no help in realizing a China-US trade balance.
In the first place, it is irrational to hold Chinese exports to the United States, which amounted to only 1 per cent of the latter's gross domestic product, as the main culprit of its rising unemployment.
Moreover, those who blame China for the burgeoning trade surplus, if not out of ignorance, must have overlooked the real picture of China's trade growth.
So far this year, China's import trade has far outstripped the growth in exports.
The trade surplus for the first nine months has already fallen by 54.3 per cent to US$9.15 billion thanks to a jump of imports by 40.5 per cent to US$298.6 billion.
Evans should know well where the crux of bilateral trade problems lies as the United States still refuses to grant China status as a market economy and relax trade restrictions.
Yet, flying in the face of China's remarkable progress in establishing a market economic system and the global recognition of China's opening-up drive, he brought a hypocritical accusation against China of not reducing State control over its economy fast enough.
The US Commerce Secretary is surely entitled to speak like a free marketer, but he should refrain from making accusations without evidence against other country's economic policies.
Ironically, the US Government plays important roles ranging from fostering the high-tech industry to developing financial markets by providing credit directly or through government-sponsored enterprises.
Instead of bashing China, Evans and his colleagues would do well to recall what Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently suggested emerging markets do about the US free-market legacy.
"Do not follow the encomiums of US special interests because, although they preach free markets, back home they rely on the government to advance their aims."
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