China lambasts US trade bill

BEIJING - Reuters

Mainland Chinese shoppers walk under a shopping mall decoration in Hong Kong yesterday. China is angry with a US bill against its goods. AFP photo

A U.S. trade bill targeting Chinese imports goes against international rules and Beijing will not adjust the value of its currency to try to bridge a trade deficit that is Washington’s problem to fix, China’s commerce minister said yesterday.

U.S. President Barack Obama is set to sign the bill into law to allow duties to be imposed on subsidized goods from China and Vietnam, which the White House says will protect American jobs.

“We follow the rules of the WTO, but we have no obligation to follow domestic laws or regulations in any specific country that go beyond international rules,” Commerce Minister Chen Deming told a news conference on the sidelines of an annual meeting of parliament.

He said China had done a better job of bringing balance to global trade than the United States, bringing its trade surplus down to 2.1 percent of economic output in 2011 while the trade deficit of the United States was 4.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

Chen said it was clear that the United States had a responsibility to close its own deficit.

“Why did the U.S. have a $700 billion overall trade deficit? Why did China have an overall trade surplus of only $150 billion but a trade surplus of $200 billion with the United States?”

Chen responded rhetorically to a journalist’s question.

“Every man, free from prejudice and armed with common sense economics can come to the right conclusion,” Chen said.

Chen’s comments come a day after the U.S. Congress passed the bill that Obama is set to sign into law. A U.S. court ruled in December that the U.S. Commerce Department did not have authority to impose countervailing -- or anti-subsidy duties on goods from “non-market economies."

Critcism on US methodology

U.S. imports from China were a record $399.3 billion in 2011. Washington said the U.S. deficit with China reached a record $295 billion, but China’s data showed only a $202 billion surplus. China says the difference is caused by U.S. statistical methodology which includes part of Hong Kong’s trade data in the calculations.

China’s total trade surplus shrank 15 percent in 2011 versus 2010 to $155 billion, largely as a result of stalling demand in its two biggest markets with the European Union hobbled by a debt crisis and U.S. consumer spending below par.

China has pledged to balance the trade account and wants to ramp up imports to support an expansion of the domestic economy and drive consumer demand.

Chen said Chinese exports increased by an estimated 7 percent in the first two months of this year from year-ago levels, while import growth was likely above 7 percent.

The government’s 2012 target is 10 percent growth in both imports and exports. Chen said “trade growth in the second half would be faster than the first half” of the year.