Hong Kong Commercial Daily:

Statistics from China and the U.S. have shown that the bilateral trade in goods in 2022 hit a record high. However, the U.S. recently rolled out measures to crack down on China-related enterprises and products, drawing wide attention from all parties. How does MOFCOM see the future development of China-U.S. economic and trade ties? Thank you. 

Wang Shouwen:

Thank you for your question. Apart from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, unilateral protectionism measures by the U.S. have also taken a toll on China-U.S. trade ties in past two years. Nevertheless, the China-U.S. trade volume has hit a record high. Statistics from China suggest that the bilateral trade volume was over $750 billion last year, demonstrating that China-U.S. trade ties are highly complementary and resilient enough to resist pressure. 

Over the past three years, U.S. agricultural products exported to China as a share of U.S. total export volume have steadily increased, approaching one-fifth in 2022. Thus, China has become the largest export market of U.S. agricultural products. Each year, the U.S. receives a revenue of $15 billion from exporting intellectual property services to China. Therefore, the China-U.S. trade relationship is quite complementary and resilient. 

However, their ties' complementarity and resilience have not been fully leveraged. In 2022, the growth rate of China's global exports was 6 percentage points higher than that of China's exports to the U.S., while the growth rate of U.S. global exports was 16 percentage points higher than that of U.S. exports to China. The volume of China-U.S. trade indeed increased to a record high, but the growth was not fast due to the undeveloped potential. As you mentioned, the U.S. has taken restrictive measures in China-U.S. trade, which hindered the bilateral trade ties, decreased the comparative advantages of the U.S. and the competitiveness of its products, and damaged the confidence and willingness of the two countries' enterprises to enhance cooperation. Is the U.S. a reliable cooperation partner and source of product supply for Chinese enterprises? Measures taken by the U.S. not only harmed its own interests but also violated WTO rules. The U.S. has imposed Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods for over four years. The WTO ruled that Section 301 tariffs do not comply with WTO rules. Under the pretext of protecting national security, the U.S. added some Chinese enterprises to its export control list. That was an abuse of the concept of national security and a violation of WTO rules. China has sued the U.S. in the WTO. 

Going forward, given China-U.S. trade ties have the huge potential to grow and are highly complementary, we should maximize mutual benefit and win-win cooperation in terms of bilateral trade and economy. A report by the U.S.-China Business Council suggests that U.S. exports to China provided 1 million jobs in the U.S. Meanwhile, Chinese exports to the U.S. helped bring down inflation in the U.S., benefit U.S. consumers, and increase the competitive advantages of U.S. enterprises. In the future, we will further strengthen China-U.S. trade and economic cooperation based on mutual benefit and win-win results. 

In November 2022, President Xi Jinping met with U.S. President Biden in Bali, Indonesia. The leaders of the two countries agreed that their teams should conduct coordination and dialogues on economic and trade ties. China stands ready to work with the U.S. to implement the consensus reached by the two countries' leaders. The two sides shall exchange honest views, coordinate with each other, and communicate about lifting bilateral trade and investment restrictions according to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, abiding by WTO rules and the rules of the market economy and free trade. We call for a stable and reliable China-U.S. trade and economic environment to boost confidence for cooperation between enterprises of the two countries. I believe that China-U.S. trade and economic cooperation will reach new levels. 

The U.S. will host APEC meetings this year. The U.S. and China can take this opportunity to hold bilateral, regional and multilateral talks. This will enable them to address the concerns of both sides in the trade and economic sectors. Thank you.