Study Of U.s. Trade Protection Causes

The bilateral trade between China and the US is of great importance to both countries for the development of their productivity, the adjustment and upgrade of industry structures. However, the US trade protection against China has been a protruding problem affecting the sound development of Sino-US trade relationship, China's industry upgrade and steady economic development.Up to now, most of the literature studying the US trade protection against China is about a certain or several types of trade disputes between the two countries, or is confined as theoretical comments. The analysis is inadequate, and some arguments are weak in empirical data support. Therefore, in accordance with the characteristics of the US trade protection against China, to study systematically the states of the development of the US foreign trade as well as Sino-US business and trade relationship, to make a thorough analysis on the political, economic and policy causes of the US trade protection against China, and to make empirical analysis on the correlation between the protection actions and the affecting factors, all contribute to taking more active measures to cut down the loss brought about by trade disputes and maintain the sound development of the bilateral trade relationship.This dissertation is composed of seven chapters. The first chapter gives a brief account of the importance of Sino-US trade relationship, and the state, characteristics and negative impact of the US trade protection against China, showing the motives and significance of this study, and then expounds the logicality, structure and innovative features of the dissertation. The second chapter reviews the development of trade protection viewpoints and the literature on the US foreign trade policy and its trade policy toward China, and expounds the analysis structure of the dissertation. The third chapter systemically analyzes main problems in the development of the US foreign trade and the evolution of the US foreign trade policy, looking into the causes of the US trade protection against China from the development of the US foreign trade. The fourth chapter makes commentaries of the development of Sino-US trade and the main problems, looking into the causes of the US trade protection against China from the development of Sino-US trade relationship. The fifth chapter analyzes the evolution, features of the US trade policy toward China and the roles of interest groups in the formulation of the US trade policy toward China, studies the impacts of the difference of the two countries' political and economic systems and the strategy conflicts between the two countries, looking into the causes of the US trade protection against China from political and economic systems. The sixth chapter puts forward ten propositions on the affecting factors of the US trade protection against China, based on the analysis of the previous chapters, and builds up empirical models to study the political, economic and industry factors affecting the US trade protection against China, finding out the key affecting factors and the affecting factors at the core. The seventh chapter concludes the dissertation, forecasts the development trend of the US trade protection against China, and suggests countermeasures in policy.With the theoretical and empirical analysis, the dissertation draws the following conclusions,Firstly, in the process of economic globalization, the US has further adjusted its industry structure, transferred some of its industries to other countries. The US economy fluctuates periodically with manufacturing industry lagging behind service sector, traditional industries behind high-tech industries. The competitiveness of some strategic industries and traditional industries declines in the international market while trade deficits increase. Under such circumstances, the US foreign trade ideas have shifted from Manchesterism to fair trade, and its foreign trade policy has shifted from free trade to managed trade and strategic trade. Trade protection becomes one of its main measures to restrict imports, increase exports and reduce trade deficits.Secondly, since the normalization of Sino-US trade relationship, the bilateral trade has expanded in scale, improved in quality and upgraded in levels. The trade structure has been optimized with medium and high-tech products taking the lead. All these factors bring about increasing competing pressure on the US relative industries, especially the hypersensitive industries. The US relevant industries have strong incentives to take advantage of trade disputes to protect their own interests. Main issues such as trade imbalance, intellectual property right (IPR) protection, market access, most-favored-nation (MFN) status and non-market-economy status, the RMB exchange rate regime, have become main causes or excuses when the US launches trade disputes against China.Thirdly, on the one hand, both China and the US are political giants and huge economies gaining more and more influence on the global economy, on the other hand, the two countries differ in political and economic systems, and have strategy conflicts all over the world and different aims for developing the bilateral trade relationship. Interest groups from the business and trade circles, labor organizations and those ideological ones have been taking active parts in the formulation of the US trade policy toward China, which turns the policy practical, periodical, fluctuant and discriminating. Besides, the unsteady development of the bilateral political relationship also helps the US to manipulate the bilateral trade and policy as an instrument to contain China's development and force China to give in.Fourthly, the causes of the US trade protection against China are very complicated. The most significant economic causes include the further development of Sino-US economic and trade relationship, the decline of the US manufacturing competitiveness, the growth of China's economy, the upgrade of the structure of China's export to the US, etc. The most significant political causes include the change of the international political and economic structures caused by China's rise up, the actions of the US interest groups, the unsteady development of the bilateral political relationship, etc. The international economic coordination mechanism mainly shaped by WTO also facilitates the US trade protection against China.Fifthly, the US trade protection against China will last long. With China's economy becoming larger and stronger, export structure more optimized, and the bilateral trade relationship furthered, the US trade disputes against China will become constant and more complicated.Sixthly, the US trade protection against China will not hinder the main stream of Sino-US economic and trade relationship. The two countries' economies are highly complementary, and the bilateral economic and trade relationship is of great importance to both sides. Therefore, they would not breach the overall situation of the mutual benefit and win-win for partial interest.Seventhly and lastly, although the US trade protection against China is inevitable to some extent, China can take active measures to decrease the frequency and intensity of trade disputes. It is necessary to strengthen bilateral dialogues and institutional coordination, and to set up and develop coordination mechanisms for multilateral and bilateral trade policies and trade disputes. It is important to push forward the comparative advantage, upgrade the industry structure and improve the export mix. China should play an active role in the new round of international industry transfer, and implement the "Going Global" strategy in comprehensive ways. China should facilitate better communication with relevant US interest groups and bring their initiatives into full play to stabilize the bilateral economic and trade relationship and restrain trade disputes from frequent occurrence. In addition, China should take vigorous actions to increase imports from the US, gradually reducing the bilateral trade imbalance. It is necessary to build up early warning mechanisms and coping mechanisms against trade protection to cut down the quantity and loss of trade disputes. Besides, China should also strengthen regional economic cooperation to enhance its capacity to withstand the risks arising from trade protection.