Trade-Status Battle Heats Up
BEIJING -- China, normally pressured by the U.S. and European Union on trade, is trying to turn the tables, urging its major trading partners to change an obscure economic classification that is hurting Chinese exporters.
Beijing recently stepped up a year-old lobbying effort to drop China's designation as a "nonmarket economy," which is embedded in the nation's terms of entry to the World Trade Organization. That status has made it easier for trading partners to impose penalties on hundreds of millions of dollars of Chinese exports, from bras to bedroom furniture. And Beijing's campaign is gaining ground. Trading partners from Thailand to New Zealand have agreed to change the classification. The EU will issue a preliminary response on China's request for a status change by June 30. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and two vice premiers have voiced concern about the matter to visiting U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans this week.
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Mr. Evans, at the end of two days of meetings, said that Washington wants to devise a road map for China to follow, but it is likely to be a long haul. The Chinese government must stop micromanaging its economy, he said, and roll back controls over large enterprises, raw materials, real estate, the currency and China's banking system. China must make some of these changes, he said, to meet qualifications for a market economy as set out in U.S. law.
"There's a false perception that there's a lot of room for us to make a decision on who's a market economy," Mr. Evans said in an interview.
Beijing's full-court press shows how China is gearing up to pursue its own trade agenda. Mr. Evans said that in his meetings he also brought up the U.S.'s politically explosive trade deficit with China, $124 billion last year, checked on China's progress in curbing intellectual property piracy and discussed possible U.S. cooperation in building nuclear-energy and other power plants. But just as the administration of President George W. Bush is under pressure at home to show it is getting China to pare its lopsided trade surplus, Beijing is trying to show Chinese businesses that it can push back.
China needs "to use the rules to its advantage," Zhang Xiangchen, a Chinese Ministry of Commerce official who works on WTO affairs, said Tuesday. Mr. Zhang said he remembered that during the painstaking negotiations to join the WTO, China's chief negotiator, Long Yongtu, told his aides: "China will one day set the rules for others to follow."
The nonmarket-economy designation has become a test case of this more-energetic policy. Under its WTO agreement, China can be considered a nonmarket economy until 2015. The classification allows trading partners to compare the prices of Chinese products with those in a surrogate country -- India, in the case of the U.S. and EU -- in determining whether Chinese goods are being sold abroad at unfairly low prices. The result: The U.S. and EU filed 96 antidumping cases against China in the past two years, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The U.S. has imposed antidumping duties on textiles, televisions, and, just last week, wooden bedroom furniture -- buoyant sectors that accounted for nearly one-fifth of Chinese exports last year.
Some Chinese furniture makers are fuming over these actions. Yang Xingding, president of Starcorp Furniture Co. in Shanghai, one of seven companies that account for 40% of the exports to the U.S., said Starcorp tried to prove to U.S. officials that it was operating on market principles and without government support, but it still was slapped with a 24.34% tariff. Mr. Yang said he stopped exporting to the U.S. in May and criticized the Chinese government for offering little help.
Still, the furniture tariffs, ranging from 4.9% to 198%, were lower than the 400% that U.S. industry sought, and the lower penalties were an acknowledgment that some Chinese companies are making headway toward free-market operations. Grant Aldonas, the U.S. Commerce Department's undersecretary for international affairs who is traveling with Mr. Evans, said one purpose of the trip was to go over issues where China needs to make progress. These include China's need to move toward a convertible currency and bargaining rights for workers, he said. A joint panel was set up in April to deal with specific issues, he said, and a senior Commerce official will visit Beijing in early July to hold more talks.
中国努力挣脱“非市场经济国家“的枷锁
经常在贸易纠纷中感受到来自美国和欧盟压力的中国正试图通过谈判的方式敦促主要的贸易伙伴改变对中国经济的模糊定位。非市场经济国家的定位已经严重影响到了中国的出口。
在经过了长达一年之久的努力之后，中国最近加大了游说力度，以求改变贸易伙伴对其经济性质的看法。根据中国加入世界贸易组织(WTO)时签订的协议，中国被定义为“非市场经济国家“。这个定义为其贸易伙伴对文胸、卧室家具等各类规模上亿美元的中国出口产品征收高额关税提供了便利。中国政府的努力已初见成效。泰国、新西兰等贸易伙伴已承认中国为市场经济国家。欧盟将于6月30日前对中国方面要求改变对中国经济性质评估的请求做出回应。在同本周造访中国的美国商务部部长埃文斯(Don Evans)会晤期间，中国总理温家宝以及中国两位副总理也对美国如何评价中国经济表示了关切。
在两天的会晤结束时埃文斯于昨日表示，美国希望给中国制定一个时间表，要求中国根据时间表做出一系列努力，不过，中国可能无法在短期内满足美国提出的要求。美国提出的要求包括，中国政府必须停止对经济的微观调控，并放开对大型企业、原材料、房地产、人民币汇率以及银行体系的控制。根据美国国内法律的规定，中国只有达到上述部分要求后美国才可能承认中国为市场经济国家。埃文斯在接受采访时表示，“有人认为我们在决定谁是市场经济国家时有很大的商量余地，其实这是一种错觉“。
中国的全方位出击表明中国正在加速推进其贸易政策的制定。埃文斯表示，在他同中国官员的会晤期间，他也表达了美国方面对中美两国贸易失衡现象的关切。去年，美国和中国的贸易逆差达到1,240亿美元，在大选年期间这是一个十分敏感的政治话题。他还要求中国进一步打击盗版现象，并探讨了美国企业参与建设中国的核电厂或其他发电厂的可能性。但就像布什(George W. Bush)政府面临国内压力，要求改变中美贸易一边倒的局面一样，中国政府也试图向本国的企业界显示它不会屈从于外界的压力。
商务部WTO司副司长张向晨周二表示，中国必须学会如何把贸易规则“为我所用“。张向晨记得，在中国加入WTO的艰难谈判期间，中国的首席谈判代表龙永图对其助手说，早晚有一天中国也会制定规则，让其他国家来遵守的。
能否推翻非市场经济国家的定位已成为建立起这种更主动的贸易政策的关键所在。根据加入WTO时的协议，中国在2015年之前都被视为非市场经济国家。由于这个定位的存在，美国、欧盟等贸易伙伴国在判定中国的商品是否在海外倾销时可以把中国的产品同印度等替代国进行比较。其结果是：据中国商务部提供的数据，过去2年间美国和欧盟共对中国出口产品提起了96宗反倾销诉讼。美国对进口自中国的纺织品、彩电，以及上周对木制卧室家具都征收了反倾销关税，而这些产品的出口占去年中国出口总额的近五分之一。
中国的一些家具制造商对美国的上述举动感到愤怒不已。思达可家具（上海）有限公司(Starcorp Furniture Co., 简称：思达可)的总经理杨星定表示，该公司试图向美国官员证明是按照市场经济规律经营的，没有得到政府的扶植，但即便这样，美国仍对该公司的产品征收24.34%的关税。杨星定已于今年5月份停止向美国市场出口产品，他批评说在这件事上中国政府并没能给予公司多少帮助。思达可和其他中国6家家具厂商占中国对美家具出口总额的40%。
不过，美国对中国家具征收的反倾销关税范围从4.9%到198%，而美国家具厂商在反倾销诉讼中要求对中国企业征收的关税税率为400%。较低的反倾销税率表明美国承认，一些中国企业的经营已经在朝著市场经济的方向过渡。美国商务部负责国际事务的副部长格兰特?阿尔多纳斯(Grant Aldonas)表示，此次中国之行的目的之一便是看看中国需要在哪些问题上有所改善。这些问题包括，中国应该实现人民币汇率的可自由兑换，加强对职工权益的保障。中美两国已于今年4月成立一个联合小组，针对具体问题进行磋商。他表示，7月初时美国商务部一位高级官员还将访问中国，同中国方面举行进一步的会谈。
