Sino - US Economic And Trade Relations In The 1970s

This dissertation is a study of the trade relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States from the Nixon administration to the Carter administration—that is, the 1970 s. In the late 1960 s, with the change of the world structure and the appearance of the domestic political crisis, Nixon adjusted the Sino-treating policies in due time, and tried to use the lever of economy to get close to China. At the same time, the Sino-Soviet conflicts escalated, the Soviet Union stationed one millions troops in the Sino-Soviet borderwhich bought great pressure to China.Thus China began to adjusted and gradually resumed its relation with America. At this point, Sino-American trade which has been halted for twenty years experienced a rapid growth, decline and finally fell into the normal track before the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Even though the two countries did not establish the normal diplomatic relations, bilateral trade also went ups and downs to the political environment, trade frictions occurred frequently, under the leadership of the two governments as well as the efforts made by the China International Trade Promotion Council and US-China Business Council, trade has never been interrupted. Through the exchange of trade groups, the two people get to know each other’s markets, trade patterns, practices, and culture, etc., which has accumulated a wealth of experience to deal with the the restrictions upon the trade due to the political factors. Although China was undergoing the Cultural revolution, the leaders paid much attention to the development of Sino-US trade. China was not only eager to buy American agricultural products and industrial products, also invited the American businessmen to participate in the Canton Fair, also great efforts had been made to expand the export of Chinese goods, which made China playing an important role to the initial growth of Sino-US trade. With the adjustment of China’s economic and foreign policy, especially to the requirements of achieving the industrilization, China began to import large quantities of high-tech technology productsexcept importing of agricultural products even though the export restriction on high-tech products still exists. Under the joint efforts of both China and the United States, the introduction of new and high technologies and products occupied the most parts of China’s imports from America.With the continuous expansion of Sino-US trade and the deepening of exchanges, the frozen assets and the Most Favored Nation Tariff treatment(MFN)had increasingly becoming the bottlenecks to the healthy development of Sino-US trade. Although the two countries began to put the negotiations of frozen assets and MFN on the agenda as early as 1972, these problems had not been settled down until the Sino-US Trade Agreement had been signed in January 1980.The negotiations also witnessed a setback or impasse during the long period of time somehow. This fully demonstrated the impacts and constraints of Sino-US political relations upon the economy. But in return, the settlement of trade disputes between China and the United States also helped to strengthen the fragile political relations, and even in some way to prevent the regression between the two countries. Through negotiations, both country had the opportunity to get to understand each other’s policy, attitude and concerns. What matters most does not lie in how much disagreement exists, but whether both sides willing to respect for differences and disagreement, and willing to make compromises. With these issues settled down, the interests and strategic relations between the two countries have also been strengthened.Sino-American Trade Relations Agreement took effect on January 1980 which led to the final settlement of the frozen assests. On February 1, America granted China MFN officially. At the end of 1980, the two sides hammered out agreements on the fields of Consular Convention, civil aviation, shipping, textiles, food trade agreement. Since then, the Sino-US trade has entered a period of great development which played an important factor in affecting the global economy as well as bilateral relations.At the same time, during the process of trade with the United States, reformers of China had been trying great efforts to get rid of the ideological barriers, expan trade with the United States and the west, constantly adjust the unreasonable factors which lie in the China’s economic system. The fine adjustments and transformmation of thoughts of the reformers in the 1970 s have promoted the later reform and opening to the outside world, as well as offerd the ideological and institutional preparation for the negotiation of entering into WTO and carrying out normal trade relations with other countries.