http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3662632.html
The
United States should ease curbs on high-tech sales if it wants to reduce its
trade deficit with China, rather than ratcheting up rhetoric, a senior
government economist in Beijing said on Wednesday.
Reacting to renewed pressure from Washington, economist Chen Wenjing urged
the United States to give up its "Cold War" attitude toward China.
The Bush administration on Tuesday vowed tougher steps to make China play by
global trade rules, including more enforcement staff and possible trade
litigation.
U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman warned that Beijing's "failure to
enforce intellectual property rights, its protection and support for certain
domestic industries and its refusal to fulfill certain market-opening
commitments" helped fuel the huge U.S. trade gap.
But those comments reflected domestic U.S. politics, said Chen, vice
president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic
Cooperation, the Commerce Ministry's think-tank.
"It's known to all that the United States curbs exports and selectively sells
only Boeing aircraft, soybeans and cotton to China, and that is also
discriminatory as it doesn't apply the same policy to other countries," he told
Reuters.
Chinese officials responded Tuesday to U.S. demands for a stronger yuan to
reduce its trade surplus by saying market forces were already driving the
currency.
