F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

NORTH AMERICA
“The Root Actually Lies in the
Relations between Capital and Labor”
—An Exclusive Interview with Dr. Tu Xinquan, Professor and Vice Dean of WTO
Research Institute, University of International Business and Economics
By Yan Manman
Dr. Tu Xinquan
Professor and Vice Dean of WTO Research Institute, University
of International Business and Economics
On January 21, President Hu Jintao concluded his
state visit to the US. And the international communities
had closely watched this visit, commenting
that it was a successful visit, which bore substantial
fruit and is of great significance for the future trend
of Sino-US relations. In terms of the economic and trade ties,
China and the United States agreed on $45 billion in US export
deals to China and to give US companies’ greater access
to China’s $88 billion-plus government contracts market.
Does this mean the conflict and dispute afflicted trade
relations between China and US will be changed in the following
years? What difficulties still lie ahead on the way of
Sino-US cooperation? And can China’s huge trade surplus
with US be gradually settled with the US’s growing export to
China and Chinese companies’ increasing investment in the
US? Concerning these issues the journalist of China’s Foreign
Trade made an exclusive interview with Dr. Tu Xinquan, professor
and Vice Dean of WTO Research Institute, University
of International Business and Economics, who was an expert
in studying Sino-US economic and trade relationship.
CFT: On January 21, President Hu Jintao concluded
his state visit to the US. And the international communities
commented that it was a successful visit, which bore substantial
fruit and is of great significance for the future trend of
Sino-US relations. In terms of the economic and trade field,
how do you comment on President Hu’s visit? What do you
think is the most significant meaning of this visit?
Dr. Tu: This visit in general was positive and the basic
tone was cooperation. The most important meaning of this
visit was to mitigate the tension in the past two years and lay
foundation for the cooperation between China and the US in
the coming years.
Obama visited China at the end of 2009, which actually
did not have produced positive influence. And later
the Cheonan Incident further worsened the relationship.
Last year, the Sino-US relations were mostly confrontation,
whether in the eyes of political circle, business communities
or academia. However, this time governments of the two
countries reached a tacit understanding. Chinese government
lowered its posture to assure the US; and signed with the US
substantial benefit, I mean, the big deals of US$45 billion;
while the US valued President Hu very much with the highest
standard state diplomatic etiquettes. Besides, Chinese
Government also pledged to coordinate with the US on the
North Korea issue. The two sides reached an agreement over
cooperation, and reversed the trend of worsening relationship
in the past year. And in the second half of 2011, the US Vice
President Biden and China Vice President Xi Jinping would
exchange visit, which actually aimed at fixing the orientation
of Sino-US relationship in future.
Right now, neither China nor the US admitted the socalled
G2, but as a matter of fact, this kind of situation was
forming, well, in my personal opinion. In his State of Union
address on January 25, Obama mentioned China for four
times within one hour. What’s more, he admitted the competition
between China and the US, but he also stressed that
the US should work hard to strengthen itself instead of containing
China. So seen from the State of Union address, the
signal that the US Government conveyed was also very positive
and cooperative, which further echoed President Hu’s
Visit.
Cooperation will be the keynote of Sino-US relations
in the coming several years from now on. Certainly China
and the US will further the economic and trade cooperation
in future. However, it doesn’t mean the trade disputes will be
reduced or eased in the years to come.
CFT: In order to add job opportunities, Obama Ad-
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