Wu Yi calls for U.S. efforts to improve China-U.S. trade imbalance

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi on Thursday called for efforts from the United States to improve the trade imbalance between the two countries, saying China's efforts alone are not enough to achieve the goal.

"The U.S. side should also earnestly demonstrate its sincerity and adopt effective measures to curb the increasingly serious trend of trade protectionism, defer the promulgation of new regulations on export control against China, relax export control over civil-purpose high technology products to China and truly address the difficulty facing Chinese entrepreneurs in getting business visas," Wu said in a speech at the welcome banquet hosted by six American organizations.

"I believe that through our concerted efforts, the issue of the China-US trade imbalance will be eased gradually and have a proper solution eventually," she said.

Wu said that Washington runs a relatively big trade deficit with Beijing in its trade in goods, which is an objective fact that China has never evaded.

The U.S. trade deficit is the result of multifaceted and complicated factors, but "we believe it is mainly of a shifted and structural nature and is related to U.S. export control against China," she added.

She said that export control applied by the United States against China has constrained the export of internationally competitive U.S. high-technology products to China.

For the period between 2001 and 2006, the proportion of U.S. high-tech export to China's aggregate high-tech imports decreased from 18.3 percent to 9.1 percent. If that ratio was kept at 18.3 percent today, U.S. exports to China would have increased by at least 70 billion dollars, according to the vice premier.

"I am convinced that so long as the United States adjusts its export control approach, U.S. exports to China will see considerable growth," Wu said.

Wu pointed out that the Chinese government attaches great importance to addressing the issue of the China-U.S. trade imbalance and has been actively enlarging imports from the U.S. with the utmost sincerity.

Thanks to the Chinese government's endeavor, China has been the fastest-growing export market of the United States for six consecutive years since 2001.

According to Wu, U.S. exports to China in 2006 increased by 190 percent over the level of 2001, 4.5 times the growing margin of U.S. exports to the rest of the world for the corresponding period.

China leapt to become the U.S.'s fourth-largest export market in 2006 from the ninth largest in 2001 and is hopeful of overtaking Japan as the third this year, Wu said, adding that China is already an important element driving the increase of U.S. exports.

"Facts have proven that China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation has brought huge benefits to the two nations and two peoples," Wu noted.

She stressed that the balance of China-U.S. economic and trade interests is an overall balance of trade and investment, and of trade in goods and services.

"The complementary nature of the Chinese and U.S. economies and the reciprocity of bilateral economic and trade cooperation are the basis and impetus for the lasting and ever developing China-U.S. economic and trade relations," she said.

The six organizations hosting the banquet are the U.S.-China Business Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA, the American Bankers Association, the American Council of Life Insurers and the Financial Services Forum.

Source: Xinhua