中國取消七大行業出口補貼 China eliminates subsidies for its exporters

China has agreed to eliminate a wide range of subsidies for its exporters following a US complaint to the World Trade Organisation. The move came in a bilateral agreement between the two governments that ended a dispute that had lasted more than a year.

在美國向世界貿易組織(WTO)提起申訴後，中國已經同意取消其向出口企業提供的多種補貼。兩國政府爲此達成了一項雙邊協議，結束持續一年多的一場糾紛。

Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative, announced the deal on Thursday, calling it “a win for Americans employed in seven diverse sectors that run the gamut from agriculture to textiles”.

美國貿易代表邁克爾•弗羅曼(Michael Froman)週四宣佈這項協議，稱其“對於在從農業到紡織品的7個不同行業受僱的美國人是一個勝利”。

The US challenge, launched in February 2015, took issue with incentives for Chinese exporters in seven sectors: textiles, apparel and footwear; advanced materials and metals; light industry; specialty chemicals; medical products; hardware and building materials; and agriculture.

美國在2015年2月向中國發難，針對中國在7個行業向本國出口企業提供的激勵。這些行業是：紡織、服裝和鞋類；先進材料和金屬；輕工業；特種化學品；醫療產品；五金建材；以及農業。

The EU, Japan and Brazil later joined the complaint over what China calls “demonstration bases”, or industrial clusters that receive government subsidies in return for meeting export targets. US officials spotlighted 179 such clusters after uncovering what they labelled illegal subsidies during an earlier WTO case over auto parts. To ferret out the details, US investigators pored over more than 5,000 pages of Mandarin-translated government documents from Beijing.

歐盟、日本和巴西后來加入了針對中國所稱的“示範基地”（接受政府補貼以達到出口目標的產業集羣）的申訴。美國官員們列出了179個這樣的產業集羣，此前他們在一起圍繞汽車零部件的WTO案件中發現了他們所稱的非法補貼。爲了深挖細節，美國調查人員仔細研究了5000多頁從中文翻譯過來的中國政府文件。

Though China is attempting to pivot from its reliance upon exports to a greater focus on domestic consumption, exporters enjoy an array of benefits that the US said were prohibited under WTO rules. They included cash grants and free or discounted services for designated enterprises.

儘管中國正試圖從依賴出口轉向更加註重國內消費，但出口企業仍享受着一系列優惠，而美國認爲這些優惠在WTO規則下是被禁止的。它們包括面向指定企業的現金補助和免費或優惠服務。

Trade with China has featured in the 2016 presidential campaign with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump regularly lambasting Beijing for taking unfair advantage of American companies. Last year, the US ran up a $366bn trade deficit. So far this year, the deficit is running more than 10 per cent ahead of last year’s pace.

對華貿易成了2016年美國總統大選中的一個重要話題，共和黨總統競選領跑者唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)經常猛轟北京方面不公平地佔美國企業的便宜。去年美國貿易赤字達到3660億美元。今年迄今美國貿易赤字同比高出逾10%。

Gary Hufbauer, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the accord would do little to reshape trade flows. “It’s not going to make any great difference,” he said, adding that it might shave as little as $5bn from the yawning deficit.

華盛頓彼得森國際經濟研究所(Peterson Institute for International Economics)貿易專家加里•赫夫鮑爾(Gary Hufbauer)表示，該協議將無助於重塑貿易流動。“它不會帶來任何大的改變，”他表示。他補充說，它可能只會使不斷攀升的美國貿易赤字降低50億美元。

The concessions come as the US and Europe threaten to withhold “market economy status” from China, which would allow Chinese goods to be judged against prevailing prices in China when dumping cases are brought. Without the designation, Chinese companies accused of dumping may be measured against prices in third countries that are almost always higher. The terms of China’s accession to the WTO say that China should be granted the status in 15 years, which falls in December of this year.

中國作出這一讓步之際，美國和歐洲威脅不承認中國的“市場經濟地位”，市場經濟地位將使中國產品在反傾銷案件中按照中國的現行價格得到評判。若沒有這一地位，被指傾銷的中國企業可能被與第三國的價格進行比較，其結果幾乎肯定是第三國的價格更高。根據中國加入WTO的條款，中國應該在加入15年後（即今年12月）被授予市場經濟地位。

The agreement to withdraw the subsidies also comes as Beijing acknowledges the degree of excess industrial capacity that has been constructed over the past 15 years, in sectors ranging from metals or coal to consumer goods. Chinese planners are now worried that mills and factories built with subsidies and bank loans are destroying margins and making it more difficult to tackle a pile of debt that is weighing on economic performance.

同意取消補貼之際，北京方面還承認過去15年裏中國在金屬、煤炭、消費者產品等行業發展了嚴重過剩的產能。中國的規劃者們現在擔心，當年依靠補貼和銀行貸款建成的大批工廠，正在摧毀利潤率，並加大了應對一大堆正在拖累經濟表現的債務的難度。