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The Information Office of the State Council recently released a white paper entitled "facts on Sino-US Economic and Trade frictions and China's position", which aims to clarify the facts of Sino-US economic and trade relations, clarify China's policy position on Sino-US economic and trade frictions, and promote a reasonable solution to the problem.


At a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on the 25th, relevant responsible persons from the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the State intellectual property Office and the Information Office of the State Council responded to hot issues related to Sino-US economic and trade frictions.


Has the United States suffered a loss in Sino-US economic and trade exchanges?


Some people in the United States claim that China's unfair competition has led to a huge deficit in US trade in goods with China, which has caused the United States to suffer losses. Fu Ziying, international trade negotiator and vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, responded that this statement is inconsistent with the facts, untenable, and completely misleading.


The trade balance is only the difference in volume, not the profit or loss. Whether the United States suffers or not, businesses and consumers have the most say.


Fu Ziying believes that from the perspective of production, China and the United States are in different positions in the global industrial chain and value chain. Chinese companies earn more processing fees, while American companies benefit greatly from design, parts supply, and marketing.


From the perspective of consumption, Chinese goods with high quality and high price have entered thousands of households in the United States, enriching the American consumer market and increasing the well-being of American consumers.


According to the white paper data, the sales of US-funded enterprises in China in 2015 were as high as US $481.4 billion, much higher than the sales of Chinese-funded enterprises in the US $25.6 billion.


"Overall, the U.S. side has made more profits in bilateral trade. U.S. companies have made far more profits than Chinese companies in U. S.-China economic and trade cooperation." Fu Ziying said that the trade surplus is reflected in China, but the "interest surplus" is in the United States.


Trade competitiveness is fundamentally industrial competitiveness. The United States maintains a large surplus with China in advantageous industries such as automobiles, aircraft, agricultural products, and service industries. According to reports, in 2017, China imported US $13.1 billion billion in automobiles from the United States and exported US $1.4 billion in automobiles to the United States. The US trade surplus in agricultural products with China reached US $16.4 billion billion, and the US trade surplus in services with China exceeded US $54 billion.


In addition, the Sino-US trade imbalance is also related to the US export control to China. According to the analysis of relevant US agencies, if the export restrictions on civilian high-tech products to China are relaxed, the US trade deficit with China can be reduced by about 35%.


"China is willing to work hard to promote the development of bilateral trade in a more balanced direction, and hopes that the United States can also show a positive attitude." Fu Ziying said.


When will China and the United States restart high-level economic and trade consultations?


Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce and deputy representative of international trade negotiations, said that the door for China to resolve economic and trade differences through consultations and negotiations is open, but only by treating each other as equals and keeping promises can Sino-US economic and trade consultations find a way out.


Wang Shouwen said that when the high-level economic and trade consultations between China and the United States can be restarted depends entirely on the wishes of the United States. However, in order to make negotiations and consultations effective, we must first treat them equally and respect each other.


He stressed that negotiations and consultations must be sincere and that promises must be kept. China and the United States have held four rounds of high-level economic and trade consultations and reached a lot of consensus. The two sides even issued a joint statement. However, the United States has gone back on its word, abandoned the consensus and adopted trade restrictive measures, making it impossible for the negotiations to proceed.


Wang Shouwen said that it is not in the interests of both sides, and stopping is the way out. For the huge volume of Sino-US trade, it is normal for the two sides to have differences. As long as the spirit of equality, sincerity, and keeping promises, I believe that a way out can be found through consultations.


Can China's economy withstand the impact of economic and trade frictions?


"Although the impact is inevitable, the risks are generally controllable. The Chinese economy is fully capable of hedging the impact by expanding domestic demand and promoting high-quality development." Lian Weiliang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said.


China's economy as a whole is resilient--


In 2017, China's total economic volume reached 12.7 trillion billion US dollars, and its export volume reached 2.26 trillion US dollars, 200 billion US dollars accounted for 8.8 per cent of the total export volume. If processing trade is considered, the impact on value added will be smaller.


"An important feature of China's economy is its complete range of industries and diverse composition, with different parts complementing and substituting each other. China's economy is shifting from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, with greater resilience and capacity to withstand shocks." Lian Weiliang said.


China's economic domestic demand has potential--


my country has a population of nearly 1.4 billion, with an annual per capita national income of nearly US $9000. The trend of consumption upgrading is obvious, and the domestic market potential is huge. There are still many shortcomings in regional development and huge investment potential.


Data show that the first round of $50 billion tariff increases took effect on July 6 and August 23. However, in August, the growth rate of my country's industrial added value accelerated by 0.1 percentage points year-on-year and month-on-month respectively, and the growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods accelerated by 0.2 percentage points month-on-month. From January to August, manufacturing investment increased by 3 percentage points year-on-year, a cumulative acceleration of 0.2 percentage points from January to July; from January to August, the electricity consumption of the whole society increased by 9%, the highest level since 2011.


The competitiveness of market players continues to increase--


Although import and export enterprises have encountered many difficulties, it is precisely in response to the challenge of declining external demand that they continue to enhance their ability to adapt to the market, open up the market, and the ability to innovate in science and technology.


Lian Weiliang said that in response to the downward pressure on the economy brought about by Sino-US economic and trade frictions, China will focus on promoting the optimization and upgrading of consumption, releasing potential, and making up for the shortcomings of infrastructure, people's livelihood and public services, agriculture and ecological environmental protection. In particular, we will give full play to the important role of private investment and promote the improvement of private investment confidence.


China will further reduce the tax burden on enterprises, implement larger-scale tax cuts and more obvious fee reductions, promote the reform of "deregulation, management and service" with greater efforts, promote the optimization of the business environment more obviously, and expand the outside world with greater efforts. Opening up, these policies and measures treat domestic and foreign enterprises equally.


"China will also better adhere to the basic socialist economic system, unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector of the economy, stabilize social expectations and enhance confidence in development." Lian Weiliang stressed.


China will make greater efforts to support enterprises in opening up the international market, while focusing on guiding enterprises to enhance their ability to adapt to market changes and achieve high-quality development.


Fu Ziying said that the Chinese government is studying a series of policies and measures in line with WTO rules to stabilize the development of foreign trade and help enterprises tide over difficulties, including the full refund of value-added tax on some export commodities in accordance with international practice, and the use of export enterprises in accordance with international rules. More export credit insurance tools, etc.


How to see the United States accuse me of forced technology transfer?


In the Sino-US economic and trade frictions, the US side has repeatedly accused the Chinese government of forced technology transfer. Wang Shouwen said that in all China's laws, regulations, and policy documents, foreign companies are not forced to transfer technology to Chinese companies; foreign companies can establish wholly-owned enterprises in most fields when they invest in China, and there is no problem of technology transfer. If a joint venture is established, foreign-funded enterprises and Chinese partners are equal market players, and joint venture negotiations are contractual negotiations in which enterprises freely choose and negotiate on an equal footing, the government has no role in this.


Regarding the US accusation of China's ineffective protection of intellectual property rights, He Hua, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office, said that such accusations ignore the progress made in the construction of China's intellectual property protection system for a long time, the rapid improvement of China's innovation capabilities, and the fact that China has become a major intellectual property country. The objective facts are "groundless and untenable".


He Hua said that in the past five years, the number of foreign invention patents and trademarks applied for in China reached 650000 and 840000 respectively, with an average annual growth rate of 3.1 and 10.3 respectively. In the national social satisfaction survey on intellectual property protection, the overall satisfaction last year was 76.69 points, that of wholly foreign-owned enterprises in China was 76.94 points, and that of joint ventures was 80.16 points. Last year, Chinese enterprises paid 28.6 billion US dollars in intellectual property royalties, of which the deficit with the United States was the largest, reaching 5.07 billion US dollars.


In response to questions about whether China's subsidy policy complies with relevant WTO regulations, Vice Minister of Finance Zou Jiayi said that as a member of the WTO, China's subsidy policy strictly abides by WTO rules and has not caused market distortion and unfair competition.


She said that since China's accession to the WTO, it has been actively promoting the compliance reform of domestic policies, earnestly implementing the WTO agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures, and further reform and improvement will be needed in the future.


Will the escalation of trade frictions accelerate the relocation of foreign-funded enterprises?


Luo Wen, Vice Minister of the Ministry of industry and information technology, pointed out that the United States imposed tariffs on China's goods, which cut off the links between industries of various countries, made the global industrial chain face the risk of fragmentation, destroyed the international economic and trade rules, and put the global industrial chain into a state of disorder; reduced the efficiency of international economic operation, and aggravated the risk of inefficiency in the global industrial chain.


"The United States has provoked and escalated trade frictions, which has indeed brought troubles and impacts to some companies. Some foreign-funded companies have chosen to relocate out of consideration of diversifying risks and reducing costs. This issue should be treated rationally." Luo Wen stressed: on the one hand, we do not evade problems, actively take measures to help enterprises solve problems, continue to deepen the reform of "management and service", earnestly reduce taxes and burdens for enterprises, and strive to continuously optimize the business environment; on the other hand, we should not exaggerate the problem, and we should have full confidence in the potential of the Chinese market and the supporting advantages of industries.


"We will continue to further expand opening up at our own pace and pace, adhere to the direction of market-oriented reform, and implement the various opening-up measures announced by the Chinese government. We believe that more enterprises will come to China to invest and start businesses, and the vast majority of foreign-funded enterprises that have settled down will continue to stay in China to deepen their development." Rowan said.


The white paper clarifies China's eight major positions: China firmly upholds national dignity and core interests, firmly promotes the healthy development of Sino-US economic and trade relations, firmly upholds and promotes the reform and improvement of the multilateral trading system, firmly protects property rights and intellectual property rights, and firmly protects the legitimate rights and interests of foreign businessmen in China. Firmly deepen reform and expand opening up, firmly promote mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation with other developed and developing countries, and firmly promote the building of a community with a shared future.


Guo Weimin, deputy director of the Information Office of the State Council and spokesman, said that in the face of the complex and changeable international situation, China will always walk with the world, follow the general trend, take justice and follow the right path, unswervingly safeguard the multilateral trading system, unswervingly promote the reform of the global governance system, and always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order, We will unswervingly promote the construction of a community of human destiny.