Confusingly, at the press conference on the afternoon of May 24th, China's Minister of Commerce Chen Deming also made it clear that during the first day of talks, "China and the United States discussed China's market economy status, and expounded their own views, but failed to reach an understanding". The two sides only expressed their willingness to continue discussing this issue at the China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCTT) to be held in the second half of this year.
In fact, in addition to strengthening communication and dialogue, S&; One of the main functions of ED is that, authorized by the leaders of the two countries, representatives of the two sides formally confirm the understanding and progress reached by the two countries at some low-level dialogues and working group meetings. However, looking through the results of JCTT talks in June+10 last year, the author did not see the report that China and the United States made a major breakthrough on this issue. In fact, the promise of "recognizing China's market economy status as soon as possible" is not the first time put forward by the United States. The first round of Standard & Poor's. In 2009; Even at the Fourth China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue in June 2008, the US side indicated that it would "quickly recognize China's market economy status through cooperation". It can be seen that this is more like the United States repeating the same old tune, but in the context of the global economic crisis at that time, the media paid more attention to how China and the United States "help each other in the same boat" and did not pay too much attention.
Therefore, Chen Deming's statement may properly point out the true position of the United States on the issue of recognizing China's full market economy status and the actual progress made by both sides at present. In addition, in S&; On the eve of the opening of ED, former US Deputy Trade Representative Esemann also confirmed this judgment in an interview with the media. She bluntly said that before 20 16, the United States could not recognize China's market economy status. It should be noted that 20 16 has no special political significance and has nothing to do with the US election. Only according to the provisions of the WTO, a member will automatically obtain the formal recognition of its full market economy status from all other members after joining the WTO 15 years.
As standard and poor's. ED's predecessors, the China-US Strategic Dialogue (SD) and the China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), have basically talked about what is good and what is negotiable in the rounds of bargaining in the past few years. What remains is the more sensitive and difficult part of bilateral relations, which is the "core interest" or "bottom line" of both sides, and they also know the cards of their negotiating opponents. Recognizing China's full market economy status is undoubtedly one of the "long-standing problems".
This is not only because it is directly related to Sino-US trade, but also because a large group of American manufacturing workers, enterprises and lawmakers constantly put pressure on it. For successive American governments, this has long been alienated into a bargaining chip. The United States maintains an ambiguous attitude on this issue, trying to get China to make concessions on some core interests, such as the dominance of RMB appreciation, the opening of the market, and the continued purchase of US Treasury bonds. For a long time, western developed economies such as the United States, Europe and Japan have always maintained a * * * attitude on whether to recognize China's full market economy status. Among them, the leading role of the United States is beyond doubt. In 2004, the European Union tried to solve the problem of China's full market economy status, but it was blocked by the United States.
In recent years, China has been frequently brought anti-dumping lawsuits by Europe and America, mainly because it does not have a complete market economy status. However, China can't afford to wait-it's been nine years since it joined the WTO in 20065438+0, and even if the United States delays it again, it will only be another seven years. It is hard to imagine that the huge trade deficit of the United States will change dramatically in just a few years.
"Sino-US relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world, not one of the most important bilateral relations." This sentence has been recognized by the highest level of the two countries and is widely quoted. Instead of procrastinating and waiting, the Obama administration might as well be generous, conform to the trend, face the future hand in hand with China, and turn its attention to frontier fields such as new energy, new materials, space, biology and environmental protection. Only in this way can the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue produce tangible results one after another, and even benefit all mankind, and Obama can fulfill his promise to the American people before taking office to "bring America into the era of green economy".