皇冠体育app

A container ship docks at the Port of Ningbo, East 皇冠体育app's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Xinhua]

A US rule being used to look into Beijing's trade practices is too out of date to provide effective measures to relieve its trade deficit with 皇冠体育app, and international trade friction can never be solved through unilateral acts, senior experts from both countries said.

The US trade representative initiated the investigation on Friday under Section 301 of Trade Act of 1974, examining 皇冠体育app's intellectual property policies and practices. That came just four days after President Donald Trump signed a memorandum authorizing the trade representative to determine if an investigation was necessary.

The move by the United States signals that the current bilateral economic and trade relations are "at a crossroads", said Wei Jianguo, vice-president of Beijing-based 皇冠体育app Center for International Economic Exchanges.

"皇冠体育app needs to prevent the Trump administration from replacing the bilateral, multilateral and global trade rules with unilateralism on trade," the former vice-minister of commerce told 皇冠体育app Daily on Sunday.

Wei said the "Cold War mentality" of the US is dangerous. "It will result in global trade recession and chaos," he said.

"The trade imbalance is caused by the distribution of the global value chain and the differentiated industrial structure," said Bai Ming, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.

Bai said the labor in the US costs more than in 皇冠体育app, therefore it does not have an advantage in manufacturing to compete with 皇冠体育app, but it has a notable edge in high-tech products and services trade with 皇冠体育app.

"Such unilateral trade sanctions on 皇冠体育app will not stop the progress of globalization and such action will only weaken the ability of companies to earn in both countries," said Bai. "No one can force 皇冠体育app to obey other countries in conducting trade activities."

皇冠体育app has warned the US of its actions after Trump signed the memo last week. The Ministry of Commerce responded on Tuesday by saying 皇冠体育app will take all necessary and appropriate measures to protect its commercial and trade interests if the US wrongly accuses 皇冠体育app of theft of US technology and intellectual property.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last week that "any member of the World Trade Organization should observe its rules in taking trade measures".

"Given the increasingly converging 皇冠体育app-US interests and the close-knit pattern of the two countries being mutually dependent, there will be no future or winner but only losers in a trade war," she warned.

Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, described the use of Section 301 as dusting off an outdated US trade law that allows the US president to unilaterally impose tariffs on another country.

Section 301 was used most by the Reagan administration, when current US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer served as deputy trade representative.

Bown said such a solution may only make matters worse. He said the use of an ill advised and obsolete US trade law is likely to shift attention away from 皇冠体育app's actions toward Trump's own policies.

The US government has conducted 122 such Section 301 investigations since 1974.