Washington follows protectionism in name of free trade
By Zhong Sheng
The American politicians “taught the world a lesson” by
launching protectionism measures in the name of free trade. By unilaterally
instigating trade frictions against so many countries, the Uncle Sam shut down
the door of free trade with trade barriers.
A string of comics have been published by international
media to unmask Washington’s self-deception and its failure to match deeds with
words. What it did is a modern version of the fairy tale “Emperor's new
clothes”, in which the emperor and his courtiers pretend he is wearing clothes
because they do not wish to appear foolish, but in the end they look more so.
Countries around the world have declared their solemn stand
against the aggressive protectionism policies launched by the US, but some
American politicians turned a deaf ear to those warnings.
The American politicians have, in a voluble way, made quite
a lot slanders and empty talks. When the US unveiled a list of Chinese imports
it wanted to impose additional tariffs, Larry Kudlow, director of the
White House National Economic Council, said that the proposed tariffs may
not actually take effect in the end.
“The actions could be a tactic to get China to negotiate on
trade practices”, he said, adding that the US is ultimately a free trader.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro also advertised the
US as a “free trader” when speaking at Hudson Institute, claiming that “for
this administration, free trade means trade that is free, fair, reciprocal and
balanced”.
During the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, the
US side vowed that it “supports free trade, but it needs to be fair, and it
needs to be reciprocal.”
When the US hit imported Chinese steel and aluminum products
with hefty tariffs, it declared what it wanted is “free, fair and smart trade”,
after which it even worked out a high-sounding slogan of “ zero tariffs,
barriers and subsidies”.
What’s more
ridiculous is that when the American politicians pledged to “continue to demand
an economic relationship with China that is free, fair, and reciprocal, they
slapped additional tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports.
German newspaper
Handelsblatt commented Washington’s move to cover “America first” policy with “free
trade” as a kind of “jargon of politics”.
A Chinese saying goes as “judge people by their deeds, not
just by their words”. If the US really hopes to safeguard free trade, and build
an open world economy, just as what China envisions to, it should work towards
a solution with sincerity and concrete actions, instead of going back on its
own words, in an illusion that the tariffs can translate its inordinate
ambitions into realities.
If the US really upholds free trade and aspires a shared
development with the rest of the world, it would not say no to inclusion of
free trade and opposition of protectionism into the joint statement released by
the G20 financial ministers and governors of central bank in their gathering in
March 2017 in Germany.
If the US truly honors free trade and expects mutual
benefits, it would neither reject EU’s offer to remove all tariffs on two-way
trade of industrial goods, nor impose a 5 percent tax on
all imports from Mexico starting June 10.
People around the world are clear-minded enough to judge
what is fair trade, and what is bullying and deception. The so-called “free
trade”, in the US side, is a unilateral game from which it can continue with
the exploitation of multilateral trading system, defraud trust and seek its own
interests.
By calling for a so-called “zero tariffs, barriers and
subsidies”, Washington intends to worm its own way around the world. Its true
ambition is to suppress other countries’ development backbones with its own
advantageous industries after removing the protection of developing members
from the World Trade Organization (WTO).
By howling the so-called “fair competition”, the US
magnifies its own interests in an unprincipled way and in disregard of
multilateral, inclusive and non-discriminatory guidelines advocated by the WTO.
In the eyes of Washington, an equality means US-benefited,
otherwise, the order needs to be rebuilt.
“Any deal could not be ‘50-50’ between the two countries and
had to be more in favor of the US because of past trade practices by China.”
This blatant provocation from the US also uncovers its aggressive unilateralism
and arrogance.
As international trade is preconditioned on and backed up by
free and equal trade, the WTO has been taking free trade and opposition of protectionism
as its core value and basic principles. This is the conclusion drawn up after
rounds of hard negotiations and compromises.
As an important member of the WTO, the US played a key part
in making multilateral trading rules, and has benefited a lot from the free
trade. But the WTO rules is not Washington’s family rules, and it has neither
the right nor the strength to overturn everything for sake of its
self-interests.
No matter how hard the American politicians tried to uncover
their true intention, their lies are not able to fool the whole world and
confound free trade and protectionism moves. In this era of economic
globalization, it is more important to enlarge the cake for common interests in
a rule-based way, than to take truculent and unreasonable actions, bully others
and follow an “America first” policy.
If moving ahead without any changes, the narrow-minded
American politicians will drift the US off course, and in the end concentrate
on trivial matters but neglect the important ones.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views
on foreign policy)
Washington follows protectionism in name of free trade
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