US should not duck responsibilities as major country
By Zhong Sheng
“The Americans have always been internationalists,
but their internationalism has always been a by-product of their nationalism.”The
remarks made by Robert Kagan, a senior fellowwith the Brookings Institution, are
more than appropriate to describe the reckless practices of some Americans.
By unilaterally provoking and constantly upgradingtrade
frictions with global countries, frequentlywithdrawing from international
agreements and organizations,and continuing practicing protectionism and
unilateralism, some US officials are maxing out their credibility in the
international society and undermining the rule-based international order. What
they did has placed huge negative impacts on global economic cooperation.
On August 1, the US announced that it would slap 10
percent tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods starting September 1,
as if they had totally forgot their “constructive”description of the
just-concluded 12th round of high-level economic and trade consultations
between the US and China.
The announcement astonished the international society
and caused serious harm to the global market.Some American officials even
claimed that they didn’t care at all about the negative impacts on the stock
market. It’s beyond imagination that how an influential major country can be so
irresponsible.
The American society is making increasingly louder
voices to oppose additional tariffs. Some said the added 10 percent tariff will
strike the American consumers and families’ budget and American families should
not bepawns in the trade war.
Others said that the new round of tariff increase is
actually taking American families as hostages in trade negotiations.The new
tariffs would raise costs on everything from computers to backpacks to clothes
as kids go back to school.
Faced with the opposing voices from US congressmen, the
public and industrial associations, Washington still argues thatthe impact on
American consumers is very small and the US has produced models to prove it.
However, the problem is that the so-called proofis
not comparable at allto how American people and consumers are actually feeling.
The responsibility of big countries is to provide
the world with stability and certainty while creating conditions and
opportunities for the common development of all countries.But some people in
the United States do just the opposite.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently
lowered its global economic growth forecast for the third time this year. In
the World Economic Outlook released this July, the organization slashed
expectations for growth in the global volume of trade to 2.5 percent, lower
than its estimate in April.
The trade tensions caused by the US and theuncertainties
in the country’s long-term policies have become a primary factor affecting
market confidence and weakening the vitality of the global economy.
The IMF once predicted that global GDP
growth would be cut by 0.5 percent by 2020 if all the threatened tariffs were
implemented.
Today some in America are obsessed with American
privilege to the point of destroying international rules and the international order.An
observer commented that the US claimed to be at the steering wheel of the world
economy, yet it could neither guide the economic development nor assume its
responsibility.
On the contrary, the US was just being extremely
irresponsible by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and the United Nations Human
Rights Council.
No one can stand without credibility; no country can
fit in withoutreputation. The irresponsible practice of some Americans is
something that stems from their disdain for justice and disregard for faith,
and these Americans need to wake up.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s
Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
US should not duck responsibilities as major country
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