614 trade deficit

Beijing, Friendship Hotel.

Lin Zhenhua and Huang Gang walked into a small conference room, and an American with a smile on his face stood up from the sofa, only to see him take two steps closely, came to Lin Zhenhua, stretched out his hands to hold Lin Zhenhua's hand, shook it vigorously, and said: "Lin, I'm so happy to see you, we haven't seen each other for several years, right?" ”

Lin Zhenhua also replied with a smile: "But isn't it, it's been several years." Ford, first of all, let me congratulate you on your election to Congress, and I've always been worried that when you become a Congressman, you won't know me as a small business owner. ”

The person who talked to Lin Zhenhua was his old friend, Ford, a technician from the former Spischer Company. Lin Zhenhua and Ford have been friends for 20 years, he helped Lin Zhenhua dig the first pot of gold, and later became a supernumerary salesman for Hanhua overseas. In the past 20 years, Lin Zhenhua's cooperation with Ford has not been interrupted. With the support of Hanhua, Ford first made his income into a well-off level, and then became a millionaire.

A few years ago, Ford left the Spischer Company and began to run the business of running for Congress, and Lin Zhenhua gave him a lot of campaign funds and other support, and finally made him a congressman as he wished, and became a person who can influence US national policy.

As a witness who witnessed Lin Zhenhua's growth from a small young worker to the chairman of a large conglomerate, Ford has a heartfelt admiration for Lin Zhenhua. Half of the credit for his success in running for parliament comes from Lin Zhenhua, and if he wants to have more say in the parliament, he can't do without the support of a business CEO like Lin Zhenhua, so he never hesitates to express his enthusiasm for Lin Zhenhua.

"Lin, don't laugh at me, if I leave your support, I, the councilor, will be just a ...... An officer without a soldier is just an officer, by the way, how does this sentence say in Chinese? Ford patted his head and remembered desperately.

"It's called Commander Lightsman." Lin Zhenhua reminded in Chinese.

"Yes, yes, it's called Commander Lights." Ford also said the word in broken Chinese to show his friendliness toward China.

"Ford, let me introduce you, this is Mr. Huang Gang, deputy director of the State Planning Commission of China. Didn't you say that you wanted to get acquainted with some Chinese officials? Mr. Huang Gang is a very powerful official. Lin Zhenhua pulled Huang Gang over and introduced him to Ford.

Huang Gang smiled, shook Ford's hand reservedly, and said, "Congressman Ford, you are very welcome to China, and I hope we can have some good cooperation." ”

Bringing Huang Gang to talks with Ford was part of Mr. Lin's strategy of cultivating Western agents. Of course, this kind of thing is a policy choice at the national level, and it is definitely not something that a business leader like Lin Zhenhua can decide. During these days, Lin Zhenhua lobbied Chen Tian, Huang Gang and other officials, and these people submitted the idea to the powerful "relevant departments" for discussion.

Finally, under the unified deployment of the central government, a plan for cultivating Western agents was finally secretly promulgated, which required all departments to actively build up their own contacts and resources in the West, and imperceptibly exert influence on the policies of Western countries, so as to achieve the goal of dividing and disintegrating the international forces that contain China.

Lin Zhenhua is a person who began to establish foreign contacts relatively early, and his high-level overseas relations include African President Naal, Russian President Piyuzin, Venezuelan President Zavez, etc., as well as Cissé, who is currently in parliament and may become the head of the United States in the future. Ford is also one of his relationships, compared with Cisse, Ford and Lin Zhenhua have a closer relationship, belonging to a piece of spoils of iron buddies, Lin Zhenhua supported Ford to run for Congress, originally wanted him to be his agent. …,

Ford also introduced his entourage to Lin Zhenhua and Huang Gang, and then the two sides sat down, Lin Zhenhua asked: "Ford, do you have any specific tasks for coming to China this time?" ”

"My most important task is naturally to visit my old friend you, and the other tasks are secondary compared to this one." Ford exaggerated.

Huang Gang only felt a chill all over his body, but he also sincerely admired Lin Zhenhua's influence. It is also very difficult to get an American congressman to make such a big slap on him.

Lin Zhenhua was accustomed to Ford's flattery, and he said with a smile: "Thank you very much, but now that we have met and your most important task has been completed, can we talk about those things that are not too important?" ”

"Of course, of course." Ford replied kindly, "The less important thing is that there is a lot of criticism in the United States about the large trade deficit between the United States and China, and Congress has held several rounds of hearings in the hope of reversing the problem of the large deficit with China, and I am here to communicate with the Chinese personnel on this matter." ”

"You mean specialized?" Lin Zhenhua smiled and picked a contradictory word for Ford.

Of course, Ford knew that this was just Lin Zhenhua's joke with him, and he pretended to be serious and corrected: "I mean, the communication deficit problem is the most important thing besides visiting you." ”

"Well, Ford, I hope that we will always be friendship first and race second, and neither a surplus nor a deficit should be an obstacle to our friendship." Lin Zhenhua emphasized.

"Of course." Ford replied quickly. This is not a joke, Ford was the first to participate in the acquisition of Luzhong Machine Tool Factory by Hanhua Machine Tool Company, and in order to use his American identity, Lin Zhenhua gave him 5% of the dry shares. Later, the Hanhua Group integrated its resources, and the 5% of the dry shares owned by Ford were also merged into the group, leaving less than 1%, but also worth millions of dollars. With such a layer of economic ties, how could Ford not care about the friendship with Lin Zhenhua?

"Lin, let me give you a brief introduction." After saying the words on the face, Ford got to the point, "According to the statistics of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the United States had a total trade deficit of $83 billion with China last year, and the deficit in the first half of this year also exceeded $40 billion, which is not a small number." ”

"China's surplus isn't that big, is it?" Huang Gang interjected, "I remember that China's surplus with the United States was only 30 billion US dollars last year, and this year it is about 30 billion at most, how can it be 40 billion in the first half of the year?" ”

"This is our Ministry of Commerce statistics, of course, I know, this should be the difference between the two countries' statistical caliber." Ford said.

Huang Gang smiled slightly, no longer squeaked, of course he knew that this was the impact of the caliber, and he said this just for the sake of bargaining.

The so-called surplus and deficit are relative to their own country, and the deficit that the Americans say is a surplus for the Chinese. In recent years, the amount of Chinese goods exported to the United States has been rising, while the export of American goods to China has not changed much, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit between China and the United States has continued to widen.

In terms of calculating the size of surpluses or deficits, it is true that the caliber of each country is different. The United States also includes many goods produced in China and then re-exported to the United States through other countries into the scope of the China deficit. The Chinese side does not admit this, which has led to a difference of millions between the figures calculated by the two sides.

Chinese goods have to be re-exported to the United States through other countries, and this is due to the US import quota system. For example, if the United States imports $100 billion of textiles a year, it will not simply say that whoever is cheaper will buy it, but will divide the $100 billion into several quotas, importing 50 billion from China, 10 billion from Vietnam, 10 billion from Malaysia, and so on. …,

After more than ten years of development, China has become a veritable world factory, with a very strong production capacity. The $50 billion textile quota is simply not enough for Chinese companies to eat, but if they want to increase exports to the United States, they are limited by quotas and cannot be realized. Clever Chinese business owners have come up with a way to ship the textiles they produce to Vietnam, put a label on them for 5 cents, and then turn them into Vietnamese products, which can be exported to the United States with Vietnamese quotas.

Of course, the Americans are not stupid enough not to know about this kind of cattiness, in fact, American importers like this kind of cattiness, because Chinese goods cannot be much better in terms of quality or price than Vietnamese goods, and they are of course willing to use this legal means to transfer Vietnam's quota to China.

The U.S. Department of Commerce turns a blind eye to this phenomenon, and anyway, they have already done what they should have done, and it is difficult for others to say anything. It is absolutely impossible for them to smash the jobs of American importers.

However, when Congress questioned the Department of Commerce on the issue of Chinese goods, the US Department of Commerce carefully singled out those goods that originated in China and counted them in China's exports, thus coming up with a deficit figure that was much broader than China's statistics.

A foreign trade deficit is a bad thing for any country. In today's world, production capacity is no longer a bottleneck, and the most scarce economic resource is the market. The existence of a deficit is equivalent to foreign companies occupying the domestic market, and the most direct impact is the increasing unemployment of workers, which is no wonder that the US Congress has to hear this.

Of course, the fact that Congress attaches importance to the problem of deficit does not mean that lawmakers really care about the national economy and people's livelihood, but because such issues are easy to hype up and can attract more eyeballs for themselves in exchange for more votes.

Ford's self-proclaimed effort to come to China to communicate about the deficit is also motivated by this consideration, and if he can get more benefits in China, he will never mind allowing the deficit from China to increase several times. Anyway, this kind of thing is a matter of national policy, that is, the dead friends are not dead and poor, who is guilty of offending their own financiers for the sake of national affairs?

Temperance is no more valuable to MPs than spitting paper papers