美贸易代表就中国市场经济国家地位发出警告

Donald Trump’s trade tsar has fired a warning shot at both Beijing and the World Trade Organisation, cautioning that any decision to label China a “market economy” would have “cataclysmic” consequences for the body.

唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)的贸易沙皇、美国贸易代表罗伯特•莱特希泽(Robert Lighthizer)发出了一份同时针对中国政府和世界贸易组织(WTO)的警告，提醒说任何将中国列入“市场经济”国家的举动都会对WTO产生“灾难性”影响。

Testifying before Congress on Wednesday, Robert Lighthizer said the US was eager to see changes in the WTO’s dispute resolution system, arguing that the country had unfairly ended up as the top target for complaints in the global trade court.

周三在美国国会作证时，莱特希泽表示美国急切地想要看到WTO争端仲裁机制的改革，并声称美国已被不公正地当成了这个全球贸易法庭中投诉的首要目标。

But the US trade representative singled out a dispute brought last December by China against the EU and US over whether it should be deemed a market economy as the “most serious litigation that we have at the WTO right now”.

不过，这位美国贸易代表专门提到了去年12月，围绕中国是否应被列入市场经济国家，中国针对欧盟(EU)和美国发起的争端。他称，这一争端是“我们目前在WTO面临的最严重诉讼”。

“I have made it very clear that a bad decision with respect to the non-market economy status of China . . . would be cataclysmic for the WTO,” he said.

他说：“我已非常明确的表态过，对于WTO来说，在中国非市场经济地位方面的错误决策……会是灾难性的。”

Mr Lighthizer did not say what US action that would lead to and he added he was “assuming . . . that the WTO is going to do the right thing”. But the warning pointed to how the Trump administration is scrambling the US relationship with the WTO and other multilateral institutions it helped create following the second world war.

莱特希泽并未表示这会导致美国的什么举动，他补充说他“目前假定……WTO会采取正确措施”。不过，这一警告也显示出特朗普政府正如何打乱美国与WTO及其他多边机构的关系，而这些机构正是二战后美国帮助建立的。

The Trump administration has so far taken a more cautious approach towards trade with China than the president promised during his campaign. On the campaign trail Mr Trump railed against the US’s $300bn annual trade deficit with Beijing and threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese goods and label China a currency manipulator.

到目前为止，特朗普政府在对华贸易上的应对方式比选战期间承诺得要小心得多。选战期间，特朗普曾极力抱怨美国与中国3000亿美元的年度贸易赤字，威胁要对中国商品征税，并把中国列入汇率操纵国。

After a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping earlier this year Mr Trump announced a 100-day plan to tackle trade issues and promised a friendlier tone if Beijing reined in North Korea. As part of that process Washington and Beijing announced an interim deal last month that allowed a resumption of US beef exports to China and paved the way for other measures including additional US LNG exports.

而在今年早些时候与中国领导人习近平会晤后，特朗普宣布了一个处理贸易问题的百日计划，并承诺如果北京方面约束朝鲜的行为，美方将采取更友好的基调。上个月，作为该计划的一部分，美国政府和中国政府公布了一个中期协议，恢复美国对中国的牛肉出口，并为增加美国液化天然气(LNG)出口等其他措施铺平道路。

But Mr Lighthizer said on Wednesday that this was just one strand of discussions and warned that many other tough negotiations lay ahead. Among the issues the US was now focusing on were new barriers to US tech companies doing business in China, he said.

不过，莱特希泽周三表示，这只是美中磋商的一个方面。他警告称，双方还将开展许多其他艰难的磋商。他说，在种种问题中，美国目前关心的是美国高科技企业在中国开展业务面临的新障碍。

“The pressure is still on,” he said. “The trade deficit still hasn’t come down.”

他说：“压力仍然很大，美中贸易赤字仍然没有降下来。”