China urges US to abide by market principles

Mao says China’s new energy products, including electric vehicles, are gaining popularity in international market

BEIJING:

China urges the United States to earnestly abide by market principles and international trade rules, and create a sound environment for fair competition among enterprises from all countries, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a daily news briefing when answering a query on reports that US President Joe Biden said China provides subsidies to flood the US market with electric vehicles.

Mao said that China’s new energy products, including electric vehicles, are gaining popularity in the international market, relying on continuous technological innovation, sound industrial and supply chains, and sufficient market competition. Their popularity is the result of the combined effect of comparative advantages and the laws of the market, and an outcome of the efforts of enterprises, instead of an outcome of so-called “subsidies”, she added.

Last year, China exported only 13,000 electric vehicles to the United States, Mao said, rebuking the claim of flooding the US market.

She pointed out that industrial subsidy policies originate from the United States and Europe, and are widely adopted by countries around the world. China’s industrial subsidy policies strictly adhere to the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), consistently upholding the principles of fairness, transparency and non-discrimination. They do not involve any prohibited subsidies as defined by the WTO, she said.

Calling the United States a big subsidiser of its industries, Mao said in recent years, the United States signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act to directly intervene in the allocation of market resources through direct and indirect subsidies totaling hundreds of billions of dollars.

Subsidies do not guarantee industrial competitiveness, and protectionism protects backwardness and sacrifices the future, Mao remarked.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2024.

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