Politics
12:30, 10-Apr-2018
Singapore's Lee praises China's role in international economy
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Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong praised China's increasingly important role in international economy through opening-up on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the Annual Conference 2018 of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in south China's Hainan Province.
He recalled Chinese President Xi Jinping' speech at Davos last year, which "laid out clearly China's approach and policies upholding openness and multilateralism."
He said he was thrilled to hear President Xi announce further steps in financial sector reforms, protecting intellectual property and increasing imports in order for China to go further in opening-up.
Recently the US has announced a series of unilateral tariffs on imports mainly targeted at China. Lee said China's response has been careful and calibrated.
US President Donald Trump signs a memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington, DC, March 22, 2018. /Reuters Photo
US President Donald Trump signs a memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington, DC, March 22, 2018. /Reuters Photo
"Singapore does not believe that imposing unilateral tariffs is the correct solution," Lee said.
Unilateral measures are not compliant with WTO rules, and as economists point out, the focus on the bilateral trade imbalance between the US and China is misplaced, he explained, saying what matters for the US is not its bilateral trade balance with a specific trading partner but its overall trade balance with the rest of the world.
He added the cause of a trade deficit is the imbalance in the domestic economy, and in particular, it happens when the country consumes more than it produces.
He warned that a trade war between China and the US would undermine the multilateral trading system, and countries big or small will be affected.
China and the US have the most important bilateral relations in the world, Lee said.
A trade war must damage the bilateral ties in many areas, he stated, adding that none of the issues like climate change, regional security and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be solved without the full participation of both countries.
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