国务院副总理王岐山 中新社发 张娅子 摄

    中国国务院副总理王岐山5日在《纽约时报》网站发表题为Distant Neighbors(远邻)的文章，表示中国与欧盟应在第二次中欧高级经济对话会上以负责任的态度，明确地做出共同反对贸易保护主义承诺。

    王岐山指出，贸易自由化是经济增长的发动机。它已成为经济全球化的强大推动力，并使世界各地的人们受益。相反，贸易保护主义维护了一国的利益，却损害了其他国家的利益，比如导致相互报复，无人获益。

    王岐山表示，中国坚定地致力于改革开放，自中国成功加入世界贸易组织，中国市场变 得更加开放，贸易自由度更加放宽。目前，中国的关税总水平只有9.8%。中国的工业品平均关税只有8.9%，在发展中国家中最低。进口农产品关税只有 15.2%，这不仅低于其他发展中国家，也远低于许多发达国家。

    王岐山说，中欧两地经济可以相互提供更多机会，贸易也有很大潜力。中欧应该充分利用中欧高级别经济对话这个平台，加强交流与合作，共同反对贸易保护主义。这将更好地让我们能够应对当前的危机，促进经济的复苏和增长。

    王岐山表示，中欧双方应当本着合作的精神，妥善解决贸易分歧和争端。加强对话和磋商，不采取贸易保护措施，避免贸易问题政治化。中国希望欧盟不带偏见的客观评价中国的经济条件，尽可能较快承认中国的完全市场经济地位。

　　国务院副总理王岐山在《纽约时报》网站文章英文原文：

    Distant Neighbors

    By WANG QISHAN

    Published: May 5, 2009

    The most pressing task facing all countries in the world today is to restore global economic growth as soon as possible. Yet it is worrisome to note that the surge of trade protectionism has made the prospects of the already fragile world economy even worse.

    China and the European Union, two major economies and stakeholders in the world, should take a responsible attitude and demonstrate their common, clear commitment against trade protectionism at the second China-E.U. high-level economic dialogue.

    Trade liberalization is the engine of economic growth. It has served as a strong propeller of economic globalization and benefited people around the world. On the contrary, trade protectionism — featuring the pursuit of benefits for one country at the expense of others — will only lead to retaliation. It serves the interest of no one.

    The world economy paid a heavy price for the prevalence of trade protectionism during the Great Depression in the 1930s, which led to the contraction of global trade by two thirds. We should make sure that the same mistake is not repeated.

    Europe is the birthplace of free trade theory, and the E.U. is the product of successful free trade practices. The removal of trade barriers promoted formation of a single European market and enhanced development and prosperity in Europe. As a result, the E.U. has grown into the largest economy in the world today.

    China is firmly committed to reform and to opening up. Since its accession to the World Trade Organization, China’s market has become much more open and its trade greatly liberalized. The current overall tariff level of China is only 9.8 percent. Its average tariff on industrial products is only 8.9 percent, the lowest among all developing countries. Its tariff on imported agricultural products is only 15.2 percent, which is not only lower than other developing countries but also far below that of many developed countries.

    The openness of China’s trade in services has reached a level close to that of an average developed country. China has taken steady steps to improve its market economic system and legal system. In particular, it has made remarkable progress in intellectual-property rights protection, product quality and food safety, environmental protection and labor security. China has also taken concrete actions against trade protectionism — the Chinese government recently sent Chinese enterprises on procurement missions to Europe and the United States.

    The economies of China and the E.U. have much to offer each other and our two-way trade holds a huge potential. The E.U. is now China’s largest trading partner and China is the second largest trading partner of the E.U.

    China and the E.U. should make full use of the platform presented by the high-level economic dialogue to strengthen communication and cooperation and jointly oppose trade protectionism. This would better enable us to tackle the current crisis and promote economic recovery and growth. It would also reinforce the trend of economic globalization and facilitates a further growth of two-way trade.

    The two sides should work actively to put in place the agreement reached at the G-20 summit in London, promote early, comprehensive and balanced outcome in the WTO Doha round negotiations and uphold an open, fair and equitable international trading regime. An early conclusion of the Doha round is of symbolic significance to curbing protectionism.

    The two sides should further open markets to each other. China will continue to lower the threshold for market access, improve trade and investment environment and encourage Chinese enterprises to increase procurement and imports from Europe.

    We hope the E.U. will relax restrictions on the exports of high-tech products to China, enhance cooperation with China on the development and application of clean energy, new energy and renewable energy and support cooperation among our small and medium-sized enterprises. Meanwhile, our two sides should step up efforts to update the E.E.C.-China Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement.

    The two sides should work in a cooperative spirit and properly resolve trade differences and disputes. Each side needs to take proper care of its own interests. Yet, more importantly, both sides should accommodate the concerns of the other, taking into full account national conditions and their stage of development, and steadily broaden the scope of our common interests.

    We should strengthen dialogue and consultation, refrain from taking protectionist measures and avoid politicizing trade issues. China hopes that the E.U. will evaluate the conditions of the Chinese economy in an objective and unprejudiced manner and recognize China’s full market economy status as soon as possible.

    Trade liberalization was, is and will continue to be the only way to global economic prosperity. The Chinese side is ready to work with the E.U. and take effective measures to oppose trade protectionism, promote better growth of China-E.U. trade and jointly move the world economy out of the current difficulties at an early date. (Wang Qishan is vice premier of the State Council of China.)