OPINION> Commentary
A hi-tech boost for all
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-20 07:46

This is an important breakthrough in China-US trade relations. The US government's decision to streamline the procedure for American companies to sell hi-tech products to China is a happy augury not just for the two countries but for the growth of world trade as a whole.

The US Commerce Department recently announced full implementation of the Validated End-User program for China, allowing approved companies in China to import certain hi-tech goods for civilian uses without obtaining individual export licenses.

True, the scheme does not completely remove the unnecessary trade barriers that have long limited US firms' exports to the fast-growing Chinese market. But it comes at a moment when a boost to Sino-US trade is more needed than ever. Such US efforts to expand hi-tech trade with China will not only help the two countries ride through the current global financial crisis but also facilitate economic restructuring to sustain their long-term growth.

Sino-US trade relationship is critical to the prosperity of both countries, but a ballooning trade surplus for China, largely due to export control by the United States, has time and again given rise to protectionism in the latter.

Over the past three decades, bilateral trade between the countries has soared about 120 times, to $333.7 billion in 2008. China, the word's fastest-growing major economy, and the United States, the world's largest economy, both have benefited significantly from this bilateral trade boom.

Yet, in recent years, a swelling trade deficit has increasingly plagued the US economy, while China was busy controlling its accumulation of trade surplus.

Worse, the ongoing global financial crisis and economic slowdown have left no choice for the two countries but to urgently address their respective external imbalance. It becomes quite obvious now that the United States can no longer expect to borrow its way out of the crisis and China must reduce its dependence on exports for economic growth.

Statistics from China's Customs show that the growth rate of Sino-US trade slowed to 11.6 percent year-on-year between January and November last year.

Nevertheless, such slower growth does not contradict the huge potential of the bilateral trade. The US Chamber of Commerce even expects that US exports to and sales of US companies in China both will reach $1 trillion a year by 2039.

The latest move by the US government to expand hi-tech trade with China is an overdue effort to balance and enhance key bilateral trade ties. It is easy to predict that US exporters will find a vast and ready market in China for their hi-tech products. Such bilateral trade can effectively reduce the US current account deficit and equip China with much needed hi-tech products to better tap the potential of its domestic market.

And if the two countries can speed up their recovery with a firm commitment to free and fair trade, the world economy will only benefit from it.

(China Daily 01/20/2009 page8)