A forum on Sino-US trade relations was held in the University of International Business and Economics on March 23.

Former US trade representative Susan Schwab said that under the current situation the two sides should further open up their markets to each other for win-win results under conditions of reciprocity. She contended that the United States’ trade deficit is in fact primarily caused by macro-economic factors including the savings rate, investment, consumption as well as their respective stage of economic development and remains optimistic about the future of Sino-US economic and trade ties.

Her former colleague Michael Froman attributes the decline of the US manufacturing sector to technological progress, not trade. In recent years, the US manufacturing industry has grown and the overall unemployment rate is low. However, because the United States is a consumer society, the trade deficit is still high. The strong political lobbying influence of the negatively affected industries has weakened the support for stable China-US economic and trade relations.

In the follow-up discussion, Chinese and American scholars agreed that a "trade war" will not have a winner. The two countries face different difficulties and challenges in each other’s markets and should take action to solve these problems. Participants also exchanged views on investment protection, industrial policy, global value chain and intellectual property protection.

With the US trade war with China on the verge of breaking out, this is a timely and significant public forum. Zhao Zhongxiu, vice president of UIBE, chaired the forum. (Li Yang)