中美贸易战的美国法根源与中国的应对

The American Legal Root of US-China Trade War And China’s Countermeasures

中美贸易战有其国际法框架效应,主要体现在中美双方会优先依据WTO协定证成本国贸易措施符合国际法,同时指责对方措施欠缺国际法依据。随着WTO体制被边缘化,中美贸易战的美国国内法根源问题开始凸显。长期以来,美国基于嵌入式自由主义理念分配贸易规制权,由行政主导贸易自由化进程,由立法主导国内调整援助政策。受国内法律和政治因素所限,美国总统行为与国会立法相互脱节,贸易自由化常与国内社会稳定政策脱钩。美国政府转而基于新嵌入式自由主义、新重商主义等理念,试图将国内矛盾转嫁给贸易伙伴。随着拜登政府重拾国际多边主义,我国当前应未雨绸缪,以考虑加入CPTPP协定为契机,从增强贸易多边体制包容性的角度,认真对待相关条款,判断其可接受程度,寻求与美国政府达成共识,减少未来中美贸易摩擦中美国法根源的负外部性。

US-China trade war has its international law framing effect,as both China and the US prefer to claim the legality of their trade measures in WTO agreements,while accusing each other’s measures for lacking in an international legal basis.With the marginalization of the WTO system,the US domestic legal root of the US-China trade war began to emerge.For a long time,trade regulation power within the United States has been allocated on the basis of“embedded liberalism”ideas,according to which the executive branch leads process of trade liberalization and the legislation branch leads domestic adjustment of aid policy.Subject to domestic legal and political factors,the actions of the US President are misaligned with those of lawmakers in Congress,and trade liberalization is often decoupled from domestic social stability policies.In consequence,the US government is trying to shift domestic tensions to its trading partners based on such ideas as“neo-embedded liberalism”and“new mercantilism”.With the Biden administration regaining international multilateralism,China should take the opportunity to consider joining the CPTPP agreement,take the relevant provisions seriously from the perspective of enhancing the inclusiveness of the multilateral trading system,judge their acceptability,seek consensus with the US government,and reduce the negative externality of the American legal root in future US-China trade frictions.