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Raw truth of limited raw materials
By Ma Shukun, Liu Jie and Xu Xingtang |
December 1, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
YOU should not restrict exports to us! For China, this is a rare call from the West, and it would be happy to respond positively if the goods in question are tires, shoes, oil tubes or textiles.
But they are not. They are raw materials. China's restrictions on exports of raw materials prompted the United States, joined by the European Union and Mexico, to ask the World Trade Organization to set up a dispute settlement panel to rule on the measure.
They claimed the restraints distorted competition and increased global prices, giving Chinese companies an unfair advantage over foreign competitors.
The raw materials included bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon metal, silicon carbide, yellow phosphorus and zinc, which are used in steel, aluminum and chemical industries, and their production usually causes heavy pollution.
The Chinese government has rejected the request to set up the panel, stressing that the constraint is aimed at environmental protection and conservation of exhaustible natural resources.
Here we pose two questions:
How could it be that the West asks China to cut down gas emissions on the one hand while blaming it for restricting the export of polluting products on the other? China is not rich in underground reserves - when you close your own mines, how can you ask China to produce them?
China has been trying to curb overproduction of raw materials and pollution for years to build an environment-friendly and resource-efficient society.
China is the largest coke exporter with exports' volume taking up 60 percent of the global coke trade. But producing coke is very polluting, said Wang Ling, an analyst with industry information provider Umetal based in Beijing.
She said companies in developed countries preferred to import coke from developing countries like China as the environmental cost of production in developed countries is too high.
For environmental purposes and their own conservation of materials, developed countries have kept own their reserves of natural resources almost intact.
About half of the oil consumption in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, comes from exports from other countries because the country constrains domestic oil production for strategic and environmental reasons.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
But they are not. They are raw materials. China's restrictions on exports of raw materials prompted the United States, joined by the European Union and Mexico, to ask the World Trade Organization to set up a dispute settlement panel to rule on the measure.
They claimed the restraints distorted competition and increased global prices, giving Chinese companies an unfair advantage over foreign competitors.
The raw materials included bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon metal, silicon carbide, yellow phosphorus and zinc, which are used in steel, aluminum and chemical industries, and their production usually causes heavy pollution.
The Chinese government has rejected the request to set up the panel, stressing that the constraint is aimed at environmental protection and conservation of exhaustible natural resources.
Here we pose two questions:
How could it be that the West asks China to cut down gas emissions on the one hand while blaming it for restricting the export of polluting products on the other? China is not rich in underground reserves - when you close your own mines, how can you ask China to produce them?
China has been trying to curb overproduction of raw materials and pollution for years to build an environment-friendly and resource-efficient society.
China is the largest coke exporter with exports' volume taking up 60 percent of the global coke trade. But producing coke is very polluting, said Wang Ling, an analyst with industry information provider Umetal based in Beijing.
She said companies in developed countries preferred to import coke from developing countries like China as the environmental cost of production in developed countries is too high.
For environmental purposes and their own conservation of materials, developed countries have kept own their reserves of natural resources almost intact.
About half of the oil consumption in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, comes from exports from other countries because the country constrains domestic oil production for strategic and environmental reasons.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
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