Washington has warned Brussels against granting China ‘market economy status’, saying the long-sought trade concession could hamper efforts to prevent Chinese companies flooding US and European markets with unfairly cheap goods.

华盛顿警告布鲁塞尔不要给予中国“市场经济地位”(MES)，称中方长期寻求的这一贸易优惠待遇可能妨碍阻止中国企业在美欧市场倾销廉价得不公平的商品的努力。

Achieving market economy status (MES) at the World Trade Organisation is one of China’s core strategic goals. Among other benefits, it would make it far more difficult for the US or EU to impose steep tariffs on Chinese companies for unfairly dumping low-cost goods on their markets.

在世界贸易组织(WTO)取得市场经济地位是中国的核心战略目标之一。其好处包括，它将显著加大美国或欧盟针对在其市场不公平倾销廉价商品的中国企业开征高额关税的难度。

US officials have warned EU counterparts that granting Beijing MES would amount to “unilaterally disarming” Europe’s trade defences against China. In private, they are scathing about the move, which they see as the latest example of Europeans seeking to curry favour with Beijing to gain billions of euros in investment.

美国官员警告欧盟同行称，给予中国市场经济地位无异于“单方面解除”欧洲对中国的贸易防御。私底下，美国官员严厉批评此举，在他们眼里，这是欧洲人为了获得巨额投资而试图讨好北京方面的最新例证。

But the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is growing increasingly sympathetic to China’s pleas. The commission is expected to make its decision as early as February.

但是，欧盟执行机构——欧盟委员会(European Commission)正越来越倾向于支持中国的诉求。该机构预计最早在明年2月就会做出决定。

German chancellor Angela Merkel is supportive of the idea while George Osborne, the UK chancellor who has spearheaded Britain’s courtship of Beijing, is a firm advocate.

德国总理安格拉默克尔(Angela Merkel)支持给予中国市场经济地位，而力主英国迎合中国的英国财相乔治攠斯本(George Osborne)也坚定地支持这样做。

Other European governments, led by Italy, and a growing swell of European labour unions and traditional industries — including steel, ceramics and textiles — are strongly opposed. Partly at their prompting, senior US trade officials have repeatedly raised their concerns with their European counterparts in recent months.

以意大利为首的欧洲其他国家政府，以及越来越多的欧洲工会和传统产业（包括钢铁、陶瓷和纺织品）都强烈反对。部分在他们的敦促下，美国高级贸易官员近月来一再向欧洲同行表达自己的关切。

The debate centres on a dispute over the terms of China’s agreement of accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Beijing has long interpreted the accord to mean that it would automatically be designated a market economy at the end of 2016.

这场辩论的焦点是如何解释2001年中国加入世贸组织的条款。北京方面长期以来的解读是，当时的协议意味着它将在2016年底自动取得市场经济地位。

But many trade lawyers disagree with this reading of the rules. Opponents argue that Beijing’s hand in setting prices, providing subsidies to an array of industries and other statist policies should disqualify it from MES.

但是，许多贸易律师不同意这种解读。反对者主张，北京方面插手价格制定，向多个行业提供补贴，以及施行其他计划经济式政策，应该使其没有资格获得市场经济地位。

“China was accepted into the WTO almost 15 years ago on an expectation that it would now be a market economy. It is not and it would be wrong to treat it as such when it meets so few of the criteria,” said David Martin, a British Labour member of the European Parliament, which would have to support any commission proposal for MES.

“中国在近15年前被世贸组织接纳时，各方的期望是到了现在它将转型为市场经济。它不是，在它达到这么少标准的情况下给予它市场经济地位将是错误的，”欧洲议会(European Parliament)的英国工党成员戴维氠丁(David Martin)表示。欧盟委员会给予中国市场经济地位的提案将必须获得欧洲议会的支持。

The EU’s deliberations come at a particularly sensitive moment for Europe’s steel industry, which has lost a fifth of it workforce since 2009 and blames many of its woes on unfairly cheap Chinese imports.

欧盟的讨论发生在一个对欧洲钢铁行业特别敏感的时刻，自2009年以来失去了五分之一劳动力的该行业，把它的很多困境归咎于廉价得不公平的中国进口产品。

At the same time, the commission is keen to repair trade relations with China after a string of acrimonious disputes in recent years. It is seeking big Chinese investments in a 300bn infrastructure fund designed to rekindle flagging growth in Europe.

与此同时，在近年发生了一系列激烈纠纷后，欧盟委员会眼下热衷于修复与中国的贸易关系。它正在争取中方对一只3000亿欧元基础设施基金大笔投资，该基金旨在提振欧洲乏力的经济增长。

The commission declined to comment on its decision, which officials say is still under consideration. However, diplomats and businessmen involved in the process say momentum is building for a positive decision on MES in the first quarter of 2016.

欧盟委员会拒绝就其决定置评，官员们表示该机构仍在考虑。然而，参与这个过程的外交官和商界人士表示，目前正在形成的势头意味着，该委员会在2016年第一季度很有可能做出同意给予中国市场经济地位的决定。

“Brussels’ attitude towards China is better than Washington’s,” said Tu Xinquan, a trade expert at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. “Of course, EU industries won’t welcome market economy status for China. But I think it’s quite likely to be granted.”

“布鲁塞尔对中国的态度比华盛顿更好，”对外经济贸易大学(University of International Business and Economics)的贸易专家屠新泉表示，“当然，欧盟的产业界不会欢迎给予中国市场经济地位。但我认为中国很有希望被授予这种地位。”

Under WTO rules, China’s non-market economy status gives the US and EU far greater latitude in determining the fair cost of production for Chinese companies when conducting anti-dumping investigations. As a consequence, say trade lawyers, that has made it easier for complainants to prove their cases against China.

按照世贸组织规则，中国的非市场经济地位使美国和欧盟在展开反倾销调查时，在确定中国企业的公允生产成本方面拥有大得多的自由度。贸易律师们表示，其后果之一是，投诉方更容易证明其针对中国的投诉成立。

The Obama administration, which is being cheered on by US industry, is advocating a policy of inaction, which would force China to bring a challenge in the WTO and thus put the onus on Beijing to prove that its state-heavy economic model has met all the criteria for MES.

在美国工业界的欢呼下，奥巴马政府正在倡导不作为的政策，那将迫使中国在世贸组织发起挑战，从而使北京方面承担举证责任，要证明政府干预相当严重的中国经济模式满足了市场经济地位的所有标准。