China-US trade, economic cooperation is win-win relationship, not zero-sum game: white paper

BEIJING - Economic and trade relations have developed steadily since the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the United States, with fruitful results achieved in trade and investment, said a white paper released on Monday by the Chinese government.

"Cooperation serves the interests of the two sides and conflict can only hurt both... China-US trade and economic cooperation is a win-win relationship and by no means a zero-sum game," said the white paper titled "The Facts and China's Position on China-US Trade Friction".

China and the United States are important partners for each other in trade in goods, with two-way trade in goods having grown rapidly, it said.

Chinese statistics show that trade in goods between China and the United States in 2017 amounted to 583.7 billion US dollars, a 233-fold increase from 1979 when the two countries forged diplomatic ties, as well as a seven-fold increase from 2001 when China joined the World Trade Organization. Currently, the United States is China's biggest export market and sixth biggest source of imports while China is the fastest growing export market for US goods and the biggest source of imports of the United States.

China-US bilateral trade has a strong complementarity. The United States stands at the mid-and high-end in global value chains and it exports capital goods and intermediary goods to China. Remaining at the mid-and low-end in global value chains, China mainly exports consumer goods and finished products to the United States. The two countries play to their comparative strengths and the two-way trade is highly complementary, said the white paper.

"For most of the hi-tech products that China exports to the United States, only labor-intensive processing takes place in China, involving large-scale import of key components and intermediary products as well as international transfer of value," it said.

China and the United States have seen their bilateral trade in services developing quickly, according to the white paper.

According to US statistics, two-way trade in services rose from 24.94 billion dollars in 2007 to 75.05 billion dollars in 2017.

Statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) show that the United States was China's second biggest services trade partner. According to the United States Department of Commerce (USDOC), China is the third biggest market for US service exports. The United States is the biggest source of China's deficit in services trade, and China's trade deficit with the United States in tourism continues to widen while China's payment for the use of US intellectual property continues to rise.

China and the United States are also important investment partners, said the white paper. According to MOFCOM, by the end of 2017, there were approximately 68,000 US-funded enterprises in China with over 83 billion dollars in actualized investment. Chinese enterprises' direct investment in the United States rose from 65 million dollars in 2003 to 16.98 billion dollars in 2016. By the end of 2017, the stock of Chinese direct investment in the United States amounted to approximately 67 billion dollars.

China and the United States have both benefited markedly from trade and economic cooperation. "China-US trade and economic cooperation has promoted economic development in China and improved economic wellbeing," it said.

"At the same time, the United States has gained access to a wide range of business opportunities such as cross-border investment and entry into the China market, which have played a big part in driving economic growth, improving consumer welfare, and upgrading the economic structure in the United States."

In general, China-US trade and economic cooperation is a win-win relationship and by no means a zero-sum game, bringing concrete benefits to US companies and people, said the white paper.

"Some Americans claim that the United States is 'losing' in this relationship, a claim which does not stand up to scrutiny," it said.