Economist: China's decision to increase US imports is not a concession
China Watch |
Updated: 2018-05-22 13:18
China plans to increase imports from the US, which is not a concession but a reflection of the necessary adjustment of China's foreign trade policy in the new era, Long Yongtu, the former vice-minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said at the fourth China and Globalization Forum in Beijing on Sunday.
China and the US have reached a preliminary consensus that there will be no trade war and that both sides will stop placing tariffs on each other after the latest round of talks in Washington on Thursday and Friday between the Chinese delegation — led by Vice-Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping's special envoy — and the US team headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Long said the adjustment in China's foreign trade policy meets with the trend in Chinese people's improving life quality and growing need for high-quality consumption of goods and services.
He pointed out that since China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 and raised the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, its opening-up has entered a new, higher phase. With this in mind, many of the country's economic and trade policies still need to be adjusted.
"China's previous economic and trade policies aimed to promote exports and increase foreign currency receipts due to the country's long-term foreign exchange shortage. In the new era, China should lay the stress on both exports and imports, paying more attention to the latter," Long said.
China plans to increase imports from the US, which is not a concession but a reflection of the necessary adjustment of China's foreign trade policy in the new era, Long Yongtu, the former vice-minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said at the fourth China and Globalization Forum in Beijing on Sunday.
China and the US have reached a preliminary consensus that there will be no trade war and that both sides will stop placing tariffs on each other after the latest round of talks in Washington on Thursday and Friday between the Chinese delegation — led by Vice-Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping's special envoy — and the US team headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Long said the adjustment in China's foreign trade policy meets with the trend in Chinese people's improving life quality and growing need for high-quality consumption of goods and services.
He pointed out that since China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 and raised the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, its opening-up has entered a new, higher phase. With this in mind, many of the country's economic and trade policies still need to be adjusted.
"China's previous economic and trade policies aimed to promote exports and increase foreign currency receipts due to the country's long-term foreign exchange shortage. In the new era, China should lay the stress on both exports and imports, paying more attention to the latter," Long said.
