Trade bullying cannot make the U.S. “great again” —— Voices from the forum “Problems in and Solutions to Sino-US Economic and Trade Frictions”

On June 5, 2019, the National High-end Think Tank Forum of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was held in Beijing, with the theme of “Problems in and Solutions to Sino-US Economic and Trade Frictions”. Experts and scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the Development Research Center of the State Council, and the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation and other institutions made in-depth exchanges.

Experts believed that the U.S. government blaming domestic contradictions on other countries will not only fail to achieve the goal of becoming “great again”, but also seriously damage the development interests of itself and other countries in the world. There are no winners in the trade war. If the U.S. insists on escalating trade frictions, China is confident of its ability to defend national dignity and the interests of the people and to deal with the negative impact of economic and trade frictions.

Serious damage to the credibility of the United States itself

Wu Baiyi, director of the CASS Institute of American Studies believes that the U.S. government’s declaring of trade war to arouse nationalism and populism in American society seems like to respond the demand of the middle and lower classes, but actually is unable to change the situation of polarization of interests and social instability at home. It cannot fundamentally solve the structural problems including industry hollowing-out and stagnation of public income in the U.S.

According to WTO data, the growth rate of U.S. goods exports in the first quarter of 2019 dropped 6.5 percent from the same period last year. The adverse impact of economic and trade frictions initiated by the U.S. on itself is significantly higher than that of 2018. Experts believed that if the U.S. continue to escalate the economic and trade frictions, there will have greater negative impact on American enterprises and consumers.

Damage to the international economic governance system

A deeper impact of the U.S. escalating economic and trade frictions is it will seriously undermine the efficient global supply chain, industry chain and ecosphere for technological innovation formed under the background of economic globalization, which will have adverse consequences on global economic growth, rational world division of labor and greeting the new industrial revolution.

The attempt to suppress China will not succeed

By releasing the vitality and consumption potential of market players through tax reduction and fee reduction and by making up for shortcomings in the fields of infrastructure, industrial upgrading and social development, China still has considerable space and policy reserves for expanding domestic demand. In recent years, the supply-side structural reform has been carried out step by step, the three tough battles including forestalling and defusing major risks, carrying out targeted poverty alleviation, and preventing and controlling pollution have proceeded smoothly. China’s economy has the ability to deal with the fluctuations in external demands. Chinese enterprises will consolidate their technological foundation and management capabilities in the economic and trade frictions, and will participate in division of labor on the global supply chain, industry chain and value chain at a higher and deeper level.