Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.
NEW YORK -- China's Premier Wen Jiabao warned the Bush administration Monday against erecting further trade barriers against Chinese products and urged Washington to instead find ways to increase exports to China as a way to lower its ballooning trade deficit with China.
Wen, visiting New York before heading to Washington for talks with President George W. Bush, sought to defuse trade tensions and defend China's trade policies.
"I have come to this country to seek friendship and cooperation, not to fight a trade war," he told American business executives during a luncheon sponsored by the American Bankers Association.
"Reducing Chinese exports to the United States" will not bring jobs back to the United States, the premier said. "Instead, it will seriously harm the interests of millions of American consumers and U.S. firms operating in China."
He urged the United States to play by global trade rules set by the World Trade Organization, which China joined two years ago.
"Do not politicize economic and trade issues," Wen warned.
"The two sides should seek consensus on major issues while accepting differences on minor issues, instead of imposing restrictions and sanctions at every turn," he said. "Existing differences should be resolved through expanded trade and economic cooperation."
Facing re-election next autumn, Bush is under increasing pressure from American workers and business executives to stop the flood of cheap Chinese goods, which they complain is taking away U.S. jobs.
The U.S. trade deficit with China stood at $103 billion last year and is headed for $120 billion or higher this year, the largest imbalance ever recorded with any country.
The U.S. administration put quotas on certain Chinese textiles and apparel last month and is threatening to levy duties on Chinese television sets. Disputes over Chinese furniture and barriers to American soybean sales in China are also probable.
U.S. officials also have lobbied Chinese leaders to stop pegging the value of the Chinese currency to the U.S. dollar. U.S. manufacturers contend that the practice gives Chinese goods as much as a 40 percent advantage over American products.
Wen, on his first visit to the United States since taking office in May, urged the U.S. administration to drop trade barriers against the export of high-tech products such as high-end computers and nuclear power and satellite technologies.
"We should not expect Chinese people to be buying Boeing planes and eating your soybeans" while being denied the opportunity to import high-tech products, which China is hungry for, he said. "We hope the U.S. will recognize China's market economy status and lift its exports restriction on high tech products."
In the meantime, China has been busy shopping for American products to ease the trade imbalance. Wen, leading a delegation of Chinese trade officials and business executives, toured the General Electric offices in New York.
Earlier Monday, Wen rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. He also met separately with the governor of New Jersey and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Speaking at a news conference earlier, Ma Kai, China's minister of national development and reform commission, defended its exchange rate policy, saying it was not to blame for the trade deficit.
"The trade imbalance is mainly structural in nature," he said.
He cited China's own deficits with Japan, South Korea and other Asian nations as proof that China has not kept its currency artificially low to gain trade advantage.
"If we reform the exchange rate system irrationally when the conditions are not right, it would seriously disrupt China's economy and the global economy, particularly in Asia," Ma warned.
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