The U.S. Trade Policy Toward China Since The End Of 1980s

Being the most important bilateral trade relations in the global economic system,Sino-U.S. trade relations start from the year 1979 when the two countries decided toend confrontation and China begun to reform and open. Since the end of the Cold War,the fast evolving process of globalization in which China actively takes partstimulates the development of Sino-U.S. trade relations. Gradually, trade policytoward China becomes more and more important in the whole strategy of U. S. tradepolicy. However, with the fast growing of China's export-led economy, especially thefast growing of China's trade surplus against the U.S. since China entered WTO, thetrade policy of U.S. toward China changes significantly. The economic recessionwhich is due to sub-prime loan crisis stimulates the trade protectionism in the U.S.and aggravates Sino-U.S. trade frictions correspondingly. Being one of the longlasting parts of foreign policies of the U.S., trade policy contains not only economicissues, but also political issues. In this sense, research on the changes, reasons, andpotential effects of Sino-U.S. trade relations since the end of 1980s, especially sinceChina's entrance into WTO, is of great theoretical and practical meanings. In theperspective of theoretical meanings, research on the changes and potential effects ofSino-U.S. trade relations in a dynamic perspective can not only strengthen domesticresearch of the trade policy of the U.S., but also deepen the understanding of the U.S.trade politics and its impacts on Sino-U.S. trade relations. In the perspective ofpractical meanings, the research has great policy implications for the Chinesegovernment.The dissertation contains six chapters. The first chapter is introduction. In thischapter, background and meaning of the research is introduced, and relevantliteratures are reviewed. On this basis, emphasis, framework, and methods of theresearch are given. The innovation and shortcomings are also listed.The second chapter is the institutional framework and decisive mechanism of theU.S. trade policy toward China. This chapter provides a framework of the wholedissertation. Because the formation and decision of the U.S. trade policy is a typical process of check and balance, which is the start point and necessity of our research.The chapter introduces the limitation and mechanism of U.S. congress and politicaldepartments on trade policy. On this basis, the chapter analyzes different kinds ofstrength in the formation of U.S. trade policy, and studies the unique U.S. tradepolitics and its impacts on the U.S. trade policy toward China.The third chapter is the historical evolvement of the U.S. trade policy towardChina. This chapter traces the history of the U.S. trade policy toward China. First, thehistory before the year 1949 and from 1949 to 1978 is reviewed and analyzed, and themain features are summarized. On this basis, the history from 1979 to 1989 is alsoresearched carefully.The fourth chapter is the U.S. trade policy toward China since 1990s. The end ofCold War, which is the biggest change of international political pattern in the latterhalf of the twentieth century, alters the U.S. trade policy toward China significantly.This chapter first analyzes the changes and reasons of the U.S. trade policy towardChina. On this ground, the Most Favored Nation Treatment clause, the issue ofPermanent Normal Trade Relations and the Sino-U.S. bilateral negotiation aboutChina's entrance into WTO is analyzed.The fifth chapter is U.S. trade policy toward China and the development ofSino-U.S. trade relations. The chapter studies the development of Sino-U.S. traderelations since 1990s, especially since China's entrance into WTO. Two inter-relatedimportant issues, which are the Sino-U.S. trade imbalance and the bilateral tradefrictions, are deeply discussed.The sixth chapter is conclusion. In this chapter, the trade policy of Obamaadministration is introduced and analyzed. On this basis, the future of U.S. tradepolicy toward China and Sino-U.S. trade relations is discussed and forecasted.