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WASHINGTON — Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, United States President-elect Donald Trump's choice for commerce secretary, voiced sharp criticism of China's trade practices on Wednesday (Jan 18), telling senators he would seek new ways of combating them.
During his confirmation hearing, Mr Ross called China the "most protectionist" country among large economies, with high-tariff and non-tariff barriers to imports.
The 79-year-old billionaire, who made his fortune turning around troubled companies in steel, auto parts, textiles and other industries, vowed to level the playing field for US companies competing with Chinese imports and those trying to do business in China.
Chinese officials, he said, "talk much more about free trade than they actually practise. We would like to level that playing field and bring the realities a bit closer to the rhetoric."
Mr Ross said state-owned enterprises in China were a particular problem that needed to be dealt with, charging that up to one-third have never made a profit and this has fueled overcapacity that has led to dumping of like steel and aluminum.
"They're being kept alive by state-owned banks. To me, that looks and feels and tastes a lot like artificial subsidies," he said, adding that the US Commerce Department will be "very scrupulous" in identifying unfair subsidies that require countervailing duties.
Mr Ross did not specifically mention Mr Trump's threats to levy punitive tariffs on Chinese goods imported into America, but said countries that dump products below costs or fail to provide a fair trading field should be "severely punished".
He said he would pay particular attention to sectors in need of anti-dumping tariffs, including steel and aluminum.
The Commerce Department may initiate some anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases on its own, rather than relying on private companies to build the cases, to shorten the processing time, Mr Ross said.
He also said more wireless telecommunications spectrum, sales of which are managed by the Commerce Department, was needed by the private sector. He pledged to press government and military agencies that control it to release what they do not need.
Mr Ross said that it was possible for the US economy to grow faster than it had done under the Obama administration. It could achieve about 3 percent growth by adopting Mr Trump's proposals to roll back some business regulations, expand domestic energy production, reduce US trade deficits and rebuild crumbling domestic infrastructure, Mr Ross observed.
"I am not anti-trade. I am pro-trade," Mr Ross said. "But I am pro-sensible trade, not trade that is to the disadvantage of the American worker and to the American manufacturing community."
Meanwhile, an influential Chinese state-run newspaper on Thursday (Jan 19) warned that US aircraft manufacturer Boeing and US agricultural imports could be targets for retaliation in any trade war ushered in by Mr Trump.
In an editorial, the Global Times said that as America has the stronger economy, China may suffer more once a trade war starts, but China "will take the US on to the end".
"There are few cases in modern history where only one party surrendered in a trade war; rather, the two parties ended up compromising with each other. How could Trump's team believe China would surrender without any countermeasures?" the Global Times said.
"The arrogant Trump team has underestimated China's ability to retaliate. China is a major buyer of American cotton, wheat, beans and Boeing aircraft," the paper added in the editorial carried in its Chinese and English-language editions, without elaborating.
Boeing's China office declined to comment.
Boeing anticipates that China will need 6,800 new jetliners worth US$1 trillion (S$1.43 trillion) over the next 20 years.
In October, Boeing and Chinese plane company Commercial Aircraft Corp of China signed an agreement to open a Boeing 737 completion facility in the Chinese coastal city of Zhoushan.
The widely-read Global Times, run by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, is known for its stridently nationalist tone, but its editorials cannot be viewed as representing government policies or official statements.
In recent weeks, the Global Times and other state-run Chinese news outlets have issued several warnings of possible retaliation if the Trump administration carries out threats of tariffs or undermines Beijing's claims on self-ruled Taiwan.
In November, the Global Times warned that China could switch large orders from Boeing to Europe, Apple phones would "essentially be crowded out", and US soybeans and corn banished from China if Mr Trump creates problems for China on trade.
China is the world's top producer and consumer of cotton and top buyer of grains like soybeans to feed its vast livestock industry. REUTERS