May, usually a blossoming month on the
earth, showed certain ambivalent signs for Chinese textile
producers and traders amidst trade tensions. Their colleagues
in the United State and European Union also hold their breath
to see what will happen.
As the US and the EU turned blind eyes
to the voluntary measures adopted by the Chinese government
to impose export tariffs, China announced on Monday it would
abolish export tariffs on 81 categories of textile products
starting from June 1.
The textile trade friction has the possibility
to scale up into a trade war. And any trade war is hurting
all parties involved. But experts in Beijing predict that
it is still too early to come to worrisome conclusions.
"Though the three parties appear to
be tough, the trade dispute is far from a trade war,"
said Zhang Hanlin, director of the Research Institute on
the World Trade Organization with China's University of
International Business and Economics.
The well-known expert in international
trade explained that "trade war" must comply with
at least three standards: parties in dispute are resistant
to each other in the trade issue and show vengeful behavior;
retaliation extends to a wider area; parties in dispute
ignore WTO rules.
"The current textile trade friction
has not come to this stage," said Zhang.
Fu Mengzi, an expert of American studies
with China Research Institute of International Relations,
said the trade tension might get worse, yet more time is
needed to say whether it will lead to trade war.
The Chinese government is defending the
principles of free trade in abolishing export tariffs on
81 categories of textile products, which is also a defense
of its legitimate interests and can not be considered a
vengeful action, said Fu.
Restrictions on textile products by the
US and the EU brought huge pressure on China's textile industry
as the marginal profit of the industry has become very small
due to heated competition in the global market, the expert
said.
"The government has an obligation
to support those companies in difficulty and to create a
fair and reasonable trade environment for them," Fu
said.
Analysts said despite tough stances from
the tree parties, they are not closed to negotiations.
On May 30, Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai gave a
full illustration of China's stance at a two-hour long press
conference, saying that the restrictive measures by the
US and the EU were "groundless", "unreasonable"
and "rash". Yet, China is still willing to handle
the textile trade issue through serious negotiations, said
the minister.
Bo said frankly that China's textile companies,
facing unfair treatment, have demanded the government take
vengeful measures, "their displeasure is understandable,
but we may not take 'revenge' as Sino-US and Sino-EU trade
and economic cooperation lies in a very wide area."
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson was
optimistic that the EU and China may solve the trade dispute
over textile products through negotiation. He said the EU
is seeking for a "negotiated solution in a comprehensive
way."
None of the tree parties is willing to
see a trade war and it is a wise choice to end disputes
and return to the negotiation table, experts agreed.
The US and the EU should take the whole
industry into consideration. Textile products only account
for less than 10 percent of trade between China and the
US as well the EU.
If the trade dispute on textiles deteriorates further, the
global trade system could be hurt, which is not good to
balance benefits between developed countries and developing
countries, said Zhang.
The expert predicted, therefore, the concerned
parties might compromise by taking a step back.
And it seemed the timing has come for the
US side to make a move.
US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez
will start his visit to Beijing on June 2 and during his
visit, China and the US will exchange views on a series
of trade and economic issues including the textile trade
dispute.
People are pinning their hope on it. "Rational
negotiation is the way out," Zhang said.
Source:Xinhua
