Perhaps US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez hasn't imagined that his first China visit has been so "eye-catching" and embarrassing. On June 4, Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, in his talks with Gutierrez, said bluntly: Setting restrictions on seven kinds of Chinese textiles has caused the United States to lose a great deal!

After 26 years of development, Sino-US economic and trade cooperation, based on reciprocity and a win-win situation, has experienced enhancement in depth and in breadth: last year bilateral trade volume exceeded US$170 billion and the sales volume of US-funded enterprises in China reached US$75 billion. Besides, US-funded enterprises had US$75 billion worth of products exported from China. In addition, according to statistics from the US side, the profits reaped by 43 percent of US-financed enterprises in China were well over the returns made by US enterprises in other countries.

US president Bush has since last year rejected a number of motions unfavorable to the development of Sino-US economic and trade ties. Just as Gutierrez has said: Whether during or after the general election, the Bush administration has made quite a lot of efforts in maintaining US-China trade ties, and has taken tremendous political risk. These positive signals have won favorable comments in China and have added many points to the current US government.

Regrettably, the US side seems to have overlooked the hard-earned additional points, barely four months after the integration of textiles, the United States took the lead to "confiscate" this important right of China. When Gutierrez assumed his new post this February, people placed hopes on this former president of transnational corporation that he would continue to hold high the "free trade" banner. However, the first thing he did in having dealings with China was that he set up high barriers to Chinese textiles and unrestrainedly resorted to "double standards", making Chinese enterprises feel greatly disappointed and unfairly treated in this regard.

The integration of textiles was the thing China gained by opening part of its farm produce and the service trade market in the process of negotiating its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), this represents a balance between right and duty. Over the past four years, China has conscientiously performed its commitments and has done what it should do. In addition to keeping its WTO promises, the Chinese government has, in particular, taken 10 measures on its own initiative, striving to maintain a stable growth of Chinese textiles on US and European markets, among which China has twice made additional levy of export tariffs, these actions are highly dynamical and strongly purposeful.

But Chinese goodwill and sincerity are not understood and valued by the United States and some other developed countries. US restrictive measures are, in the final analysis, trade protectionism that goes against basic WTO principles. The restrictions set by the United States this time have caused it to lose points not only in China, but also in the vast number of developing countries as well as in multilateral economic and trade systems.

Division of labor in industries has been realized between China and the United States, America holds absolute predominance almost in all trading fields, particularly in mid- and high-end markets, while textile and apparel industry is a competitive industry China has formed over many years of accumulations and it bears on the national economy and people's livelihood. The added value of Chinese exported textile, a low-end product, is very low: the actual gain only accounts for 10 percent of the profits, the bulk of profits has been carried away by US importers and retailers. The cheap but excellent Chinese goods have greatly lowered the family expenses of US consumers. It can be said that Chinese textiles do not in the least harm US economic benefits, even if these textiles were completely withdrawn from the US market, American enterprises are unable to produce such textiles, and the country still has to import from other countries, making the loss outweigh the gain, moreover, Sino-US textile trade accounts for only 6 percent of the bilateral trade. The United States ought to correctly approach the matter and be more magnanimous. Only when both the developed and developing countries have something to do, can the world undergo common development amid balance and harmony.

In dealing with questions, be it the textile question, or the protection of IPR, or the question related to Sino-US trade balance, the Chinese government has always paid high attention to such questions and repeatedly expressed its willingness to strengthen consultations and properly solve the matter with the US side. But in solving any frictions, it is essential to observe rules and the solution must be fair and rational. The United States is China's important trade partner and maintaining sound and harmonious economic and trade cooperation conforms to the general situation regarding Sino-US relations and to the fundamental interests of the two peoples. If the US side, Gutierrez included, wants to carry out free trade successfully with China, the most crucial thing is to make the cake bigger together with the Chinese side, defuse contradictions in the course of development, instead of setting restrictions at every turn. In the international economic and trade arena, only with the manifestations of mutual benefit, can excellent points be scored.

Published on the front page of People's Daily Overseas Edition on June 6, the article is translated by People's Daily Online.