US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has zeroed in on China, calling it an unprecedented threat to the world trading system..
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has zeroed in on China, calling it an unprecedented threat to the world trading system.
Asked about Asia, he said the US prefers bilateral agreements based on the assumption that, with a US$18 trillion (S$24 trillion) economy, it can do a better job negotiating and enforcing bilateral rather than multilateral trade agreements.
« The policy will be to engage countries (in Asia) in bilateral agreements; we have to determine when we are going to do it and what the order will be, » Mr Lighthizer, a trade hawk, told an audience at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Monday.
He had blunt words for China, saying: « The sheer scale of (China’s) coordinated efforts to develop their economy, to subsidise, to create national champions, to force technology transfer and to distort markets in China and throughout the world is a threat to the world trading system that is unprecedented. »
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was not equipped to deal with this problem, he said.
« The WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, were not designed to successfully manage mercantilism on this scale, » he maintained.
« We must find other ways to defend our companies, workers, farmers and indeed our economic system. We must find new ways to ensure that a market-based economy prevails.
