China must oppose attempt to politicize trade issues: Wu

BEIJING—China firmly opposes any attempt to politicize trade issues, Vice Premier Wu Yi said Wednesday.
“Politicizing trade issues will harm the interests of not just one side, but both sides,” Wu said at the opening ceremony of the Third China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) held in Beijing on Dec. 12 and 13. “Thanks to accelerated economic globalization, the growing China-U.S. business relations featuring interdependence, mutual benefit and win-win progress have brought our two peoples increasingly closer to each other,” the Chinese vice premier said.
“We all hope that both our economies will enjoy sustained growth so as to create more opportunities to expand cooperation in the interest of our respective development,” she added. “This is why we must not allow some interest groups to harm ourwin-win business relations in pursuit of their selfish interests,” she added. Wu also expressed her concern over the 50 or so protectionist China-related bills introduced in the U.S. Congress, saying that “I need to be quite candid about this: If these bills are adopted, they will severely undermine U.S. business ties with China.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Trade Representative Ambassador Susan Schwab sent a joint letter to the U.S. Congress on July 30, rightly pointing out these moves can only be “counter-productive.” About 160 U.S. multinational corporations and industry associations, including Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Citibank and Coco-cola, also sent a joint letter to the Congress on Sept. 26, emphasizing the U.S. trade sanctions against China would only cause negative impact rather than a positive one.
Wu said, “I hope that the U.S. administration, the Congress and the media will heed the voice of the business community.” “I hope they will not lose sight of the larger interests of the United States, follow the historical trend of economic globalization, appreciate the importance of its overall relations with China and the mutually beneficial nature of our business ties, and pursue the right trade policy so as to enable our two peoples to gain more from the continuous growth of China-U.S. business relations,” she added.
A Chinese official Wednesday called on the United States to strengthen cooperation with China on improving product safety, saying the two sides share a common responsibility. “Every country bears the responsibility of ensuring product quality and food safety. China and the U.S. should strengthen cooperation between relevant departments to jointly improve product safety and quality,” said Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Product quality and food safety are major issues in the third China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue, which opened here on Wednesday. Li said the Chinese government was taking seriously quality problems in exports to the U.S. and was determined to solve them. “But some of the problems lie with the importers and designers of the United States; such as some potential safety problems in the design of the toys, so the U.S. should take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility in these areas,” Li said.—Xinhua