In the semi-annual report of the US Treasury Department, China was not listed as a currency manipulator, but it repeatedly put pressure on China's exchange rate. This kind of "arguing and giving a sweet date" has become the usual means of the US Treasury, constantly talking about the "trade deficit", but ignoring the fact that US exports to China have grown rapidly in recent years, which is outrageous.
Since China's accession to the WTO, the United States has constantly created public opinion that the reason for China's sharp increase in exports and foreign exchange reserves is that the RMB is undervalued, and criticized China as a so-called "currency manipulator", believing that the low RMB exchange rate is the reason for the increase in the US-China trade deficit, and constantly put pressure on China.
In fact, the reasons for China's export growth, trade surplus and foreign exchange reserves increase mainly come from the market economy system and processing trade policy. Since the reform and opening-up, multinational companies from developed countries in Europe and America have moved their original middle and low-grade manufacturing industries to China and purchased their finished products back to China. This international industrial transfer has expanded China's trade surplus. The export of multinational companies in China accounts for 50% ~ 60% of China's total export, that is, most of the surplus is created by multinational companies, not state-owned and private enterprises in China, and has no direct relationship with the exchange rate.
The fallacy of several US congressmen that "lowering the RMB exchange rate reduces China's imports, thus reducing the trade deficit" has also been proved to be wrong. Most of China's exports to the United States are goods that are no longer produced in the United States. After the decrease in imports from China, it is bound to increase imports from other countries, and the trade deficit will increase instead of decrease.
The reason for the trade deficit between the United States and China lies not only in the strong demand for high-quality and low-priced goods from China and the differences in statistical methods between the United States and China, but also in the export control policy of the United States towards China. At present, the US export control policy to China covers 2,500 products. If we relax the export restrictions on high-tech products to China and realize complete free trade, we have reason to believe that the trade deficit will be reduced or even zero.
As a responsible member of the WTO, China began to implement a floating exchange rate system in July 2005, and since then, the exchange rate of RMB against the US dollar has been rising. In 2006, the RMB appreciated by 3.35%, in 2007 by 6.85%, and in April 2008, the RMB exchange rate broke 7%. It is estimated that the annual appreciation will be 65,438+00%. China's efforts have attracted worldwide attention, but the United States is not satisfied and continues to put pressure on China, which is unreasonable. Since the Bretton Woods system, in order to maintain its financial hegemony and dollar hegemony, the United States has been strongly intervening in finance and exchange rate, and is the world's leading exchange rate manipulator.
After the 200 1 Bush administration came to power, the growth period of American economy 10 began to end, the current account deficit and trade deficit increased greatly, and foreign debt increased rapidly. In order to solve these problems, the US government began to implement the weak dollar policy.
After the subprime mortgage crisis broke out at the end of 2007, the depreciation rate of the US dollar was accelerating, and the interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve was also increasing, which eventually led to the rising prices of resource products in the international market: international oil prices kept hitting record highs, and recently broke the record of 150 USD/barrel; International gold prices continue to rise, exceeding the highest price 1000 USD/oz.
In order to narrow the trade deficit and stimulate economic recovery, the United States allowed and promoted the depreciation of the dollar. Since 200 1, the dollar has depreciated by 40.58% against major international currencies such as the euro. In addition, the economic recession in the United States has led to a slowdown in global economic growth, and major international organizations have continuously lowered their economic growth expectations, and the whole world is paying for the financial mistakes in the United States. What kind of foreign exchange policy a country adopts belongs to its sovereignty. The United States constantly demands the appreciation of other countries' currencies, but it implements the policy of devaluing the dollar itself, which is not only an interference in other countries' internal affairs, but also a manifestation of economic hegemonism. However, asking other countries to appreciate their currencies cannot solve the trade deficit problem of the United States at all. On the contrary, it will only plunge it into the quagmire of deflation and trigger a financial crisis, which can be confirmed by Japan in the 1990s and Southeast Asian countries in the Asian financial crisis.