China criticizes US 'trade bullyism' practices

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The current US administration has trumpeted "America First" since taking office in 2017, and has abandoned international rules as well as its own promises, causing trade disputes, damaging the multilateral trade system and interests of all, China said in a white paper released on Monday.

Bypassing the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, the US launched a series of trade investigations on international trade partners based on its domestic regulations such as Section 301, Section 201, and Section 232 and resorted to punitive tariffs on WTO members without authorization from the WTO, according to the white paper released by China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

These practices not only hurt the interests of WTO members but also sabotage the international trade system.

The US administration has been criticizing China's industrial policies, including its development strategy "Made in China 2025."

In fact, the US has released a series of industrial policies from 2009 to 2013, including seven development plans to boost American manufacturing industries.

All of these polices demanded more support from the government to manufacturing industries, such as more investment and loans, government purchases, etc.

Moreover, the US also conducted "long-arm jurisdiction" on overseas entities by requiring them to obey US domestic laws, such as strict limits on importers of US products in terms of uses of what they purchased and those who fail to meet the requirements will be put on a blacklist for future imports.

As of August 1, a total of 1,013 entities all over the world have been put on the blacklist, which hurts enterprises and also the developing countries' right of development.

The US administration has blamed global trade for its own policy failures, systemic flaws and unemployment, primarily targeting China.

However, data showed that from 2001 to 2017, the US unemployment rate dropped from 5.7 percent to 4.1 percent while revenue from China-US trade grew by 4.4 times, disproving the US accusation that trade with China has resulted in stolen US jobs.

On the contrary, the US job market saw 6.8 percent growth from 2010 to 2015 when the US manufacturing industries' imports from China grew by 32.4 percent, according to official US data.

In fact, the white paper said, unemployment in the US is due to technological improvements, economic structural changes and other domestic policy failures, instead of due to global trade or major trade partners like China.

The two countries have tried to solve the trade disputes through several rounds of talks, but the US has broken its own promises and torn apart agreements, leading to escalating tension between the two sides.