China And Unbalanced trade….A Disappointing Scapegoat
The European Parliament will soon approve one of its most remarkable report on trade policy and China. Unfortunately, the current draft seems one of the most ideologically driven documents published by the European Parliament.
The title is self-explanatory: “ China: unbalanced trade?”
In the explanatory statement the draft text reads: “The [trade] balance to be sought is a necessity because, in the crisis that Europe is now going through, the public might be more inclined to believe accusations against China, viewed as the source of all our woes.” Well, the draft report seems not to be doing anything else but fostering these accusations. While the document is a good summary of China market access related issues, it also makes a constant implicit reference to the EU economic troubles, making China appear as co-responsible for such a situation. For example, the draft report suggests that the undervaluation of the renminbi risks to create world economic instability. However, such an argument is provided without a logic economic explanation. As such, it just sets a biased assumption. In addition, the old argument of cheap imports from China is extensively reiterated. It almost seems like suggesting that the faulty European economic recovery is caused by the current trade deficit with the Asian country.
The report is also surprisingly inconsistent with the current level of discussion on other “hot topics” in the EP. Notably, there are few references to the disappointing step taken by China in non participating in the ACTA negotiations. However, many MEPs have strongly criticised the agreement, and the EP approval cannot itself be taken for granted.
What is really disappointing instead is that the encouragement to implement a strong EU re-industrialisation policy is left at the very end of the report. Little or no reference at all is done to innovation, that seems to be the primary road out of economic stagnation.
Comments (0)