By Xinhua
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.