US President Barack Obama served notice on Sunday that the US was fed up with China’s trade and currency practices as he turned up the heat on the US’ biggest economic rival.
“Enough’s enough,” Obama said bluntly at a closing news conference of an APEC summit where he scored a significant breakthrough in his push to create a pan-Pacific free-trade zone and promote green technologies.
Using some of his toughest language yet against China, Obama, a day after face-to-face talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), demanded that China stop “gaming” the international system and create a level playing field for US and other foreign businesses.
“We’re going to continue to be firm that China operate by the same rules as everyone else,” Obama told reporters after hosting the 21-nation APEC summit in his native Honolulu. “We don’t want them taking advantage of the United States.”
China shot back that it refused to abide by international economic rules that it had no part in writing.
Even as Obama issued the veiled threat of further punitive action against China, it was unclear how much of his tough rhetoric was, at least in part, political posturing aimed at economically weary US voters who will decide in November next year whether to give him a second term.
Obama said China should allow its currency to rise faster in value, adding that it was being kept artificially low and was hurting US companies and jobs.
He said China, which often presents itself as a developing country, is now “grown up” and should act that way in global economic affairs.
The sharp words between the US and China contrasted with the unified front that Asia-Pacific leaders sought to present with a pledge to bolster their economies and lower trade barriers in an effort to shield against the fallout from Europe’s debt crisis.
The members of APEC, which account for more than half of the world’s economic output, said they had agreed on ways to counter “significant downside risks” to the world economy.
That followed an appeal by Obama, seeking to reassert US leadership to counter China’s growing influence around the Pacific Rim, for a commitment to expand trade opportunities as an antidote to Europe’s fiscal woes.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, in Honolulu to consult with APEC leaders, said the eurozone upheaval risked sweeping the world economy into a “downward spiral” and hat all countries had a stake in resolving the crisis.
“We recognize that further trade liberalization is essential to achieving a sustainable global recovery in the aftermath of the global recession of 2008-2009,” APEC said in a final communique.
The communique also expressed a firm resolve “to support the strong, sustained and balanced growth of the regional and global economy” — a clear reference to US concerns about a huge trade deficit with China’s export-driven economy, fiscal problems in developed nations and the low savings rate in the US.
In another bow to US pressure, APEC committed to reducing tariffs on environmental goods and services to 5 percent as a way to promote green technology trade, overcoming China’s resistance to the idea.
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