China to Become More Welcoming to Imports, Says China's Xi
China wants to make it more likely that imports will rise by taking more steps "to lower tariffs, facilitate customs clearance, reduce institutional costs in import, and step up cross-border e-commerce," President Xi Jinping said in a speech Nov. 5 in Shanghai at the first China International Import Expo. Most purchases of industrial goods made by American companies are of products made in China -- most of the U.S. exports to China are commodities, like chemicals and soybeans.
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The U.S. is raising tariffs on China because of its long-standing problems with intellectual property theft, discrimination between foreign and domestic firms, and because the U.S. fears that Chinese industrial policy will erode the U.S. advantage in high-tech design and manufacturing.
Xi said in his speech that China is resolute in meting out punishment for intellectual property infringements, and promised to "enhance the credibility and efficiency of IP examination, and put in place a punitive compensation system to significantly raise the cost for offenders. Improvement of the business environment is an on-going process, and there is always room for things to become better," according to a translation by Xinhua news service. He also pointed to lower restrictions on foreign investment that he announced in April.
Xi criticized a resurgence of protectionism, without naming the U.S. "Economic globalization faces headwinds, and multilateralism and the system of free trade are under threat," he said. "Progress of the human society requires continued efforts of all countries to advance opening-up, cooperation and win-win development, instead of seclusion, confrontation and monopoly. In a world of deepening economic globalization, practices of the law of the jungle and winner-takes-all only represent a dead end."