Agence France Presse | Dec. 8, 2003
NEW YORK (AFP) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, on an official US visit, warned Washington against politicising Sino-US economic disputes and sought to soothe US concerns over its massive trade deficit with China.
Wen, who earlier in the day had rung the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, told a group of US bankers in New York that he had not come "to fight a trade war," despite heightened bilateral trade tensions.
Frictions include US concerns that China is keeping its currency artificially weak against the dollar, intellectual property rights (IPR) violations and, above all, China's huge trade surplus with the United States.
On a visit to China in October, US Commerce Secretary Don Evans had said US patience with the trade imbalance was "wearing thin" and threatened to close off US markets to China's exports if Beijing failed to make greater efforts to open its doors.
Wen warned that any attempt to reduce Chinese exports would harm both countries, and especially US firms operating in China.
"A more realistic solution is for the US to expand its exports to China," the premier said, adding that China planned to import over one trillion dollars worth of goods from around the world over the next three years.
Wen specifically cited China's displeasure with US restrictions on the export to China of high-tech products deemed to have potential non-civilian applications.
"I ardently hope that the relevant US departments will make a clean break with those obsolete concepts and anachronistic practices, and throw them into the Pacific Ocean," he said.
The premier, who will meet with President George W. Bush in Washington on Tuesday, is heading a high-powered trade delegation that includes Ma Kai, head of the State Development and Reform Commission, and Vice Commerce Minister Ma Xiuhong.
Prior to Wen's address, both Chinese ministers addressed criticism that Beijing's control of foreign exchange rates had aggravated the trade surplus by keeping the renminbi artificially low against the dollar.
Ma Kai acknowledged the need for reform but said change could only come gradually.
"If we reform the exchange rate system irrationally when the conditions are not there, it would only introduce disruption to the economy of China and to the global economy," he told reporters.
Ma Xiuhong, meanwhile, argued that growing Chinese exports to the United States had "created room for job creation in the United States rather than job losses."
Last year, the US shortfall with China was a staggering 103 billion dollars, nearly a quarter of the total US trade deficit. US officials say the figure could reach as high as 130 billion dollars this year.
US officials said Bush would push Wen to open the Chinese market wider to US exports and push for action on runaway software piracy in China.
"We are very worried about what we view as a deterioration with the situation with respect to IPR inside China. We will push that hard," a senior administration official told reporters.
"The degree of copyright theft and couterfeiting is increasing in China ... the Chinese understand this is a problem, they want to work with us on it but we want to see real progress," the official said on condition of anonymity.
On the renminbi-dollar exchange rate, the official acknowledged that China could not switch to a free flowing currency "overnight," but added that Washington wanted "to see movement" on the issue.
On top of the economy, Wen is expected to seek assurances on Tuesday that Washington will rein in Taiwan, which has angered China with suggestions it might want to push for independence through a series of referendums, formalizing a 54-year division from the mainland.
China has made no secret of its wish to see the US government keep Taiwan in check. It also hopes to persuade Washington to stop selling weapons to the island, and refrain from encouraging it to steer away from the Chinese embrace.
The United States is Taiwan's main weapons supplier and has pledged to help defend the island if China attacks.Agence France Presse:
