纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英拜登的贸易举措令中国不满但在摇摆州获得支持

President Biden has intensified efforts to shield American industries from foreign competition in an election year, as he courts blue-collar workers and attempts to avoid being outflanked on trade by his Republican rival, former President Donald J. Trump.

在大选年，拜登总统加大了保护美国工业不受外国竞争影响的力度，他向蓝领工人示好，试图避免在贸易问题上被共和党对手、前总统特朗普占先。

The moves have strained Mr. Biden’s relationships with international allies and rivals alike, drawing charges of protectionism from diplomats and some economists, including top Chinese officials during Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen’s recent trip to Beijing.

这些举措使拜登与国际盟友和竞争对手的关系变得紧张，招来外交官和一些经济学家指责他实施保护主义，其中包括美国财政部长耶伦最近访问北京期间中国高官的指控。

But the measures have cheered labor unions, environmental groups and other key members of Mr. Biden’s political support base, particularly in the swing states of the industrial Midwest.

但这些措施令工会、环保组织和拜登票仓中的其他重要成员感到振奋，尤其是在中西部工业地区的摇摆州。

Mr. Biden and his administration have recently signaled they are preparing new tariffs and other measures to block cheap electric vehicles and other clean-energy imports from China. Those efforts, combined with new limits on American investment in China, restrictions on exports of advanced technology and subsidies for the U.S. semiconductor industry, fueled major tensions during Ms. Yellen’s visit.

拜登及其政府最近暗示正准备新的关税和其他措施，以阻止从中国进口廉价电动汽车和其他清洁能源。这些措施，再加上对美国在华投资的新限制、对先进技术出口的限制，以及对美国半导体行业的补贴，在耶伦访华期间加剧了紧张局势。

Hours after she concluded a news conference in Beijing, the Biden administration announced that it would provide up to $6.6 billion in grants to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the leading maker of the most advanced microchips, in an effort to bring some of the most cutting-edge semiconductor technology to the United States. The administration has been doling out billions of dollars to semiconductor companies as it looks to reduce its reliance on China for critical microchips.

在她结束在北京举行的新闻发布会几小时后，拜登政府宣布，将向最先进微芯片的领先制造商台积电提供高达66亿美元的资助，以便将一些最尖端的半导体技术引入美国。政府已向半导体公司拨款数十亿美元，希望减少在关键微芯片领域对中国的依赖。

The president has also announced opposition to Japanese steel-maker Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of the iconic domestic manufacturer U.S. Steel, saying that U.S. Steel should be domestically owned and that he “told our steel workers I have their backs, and I meant it.”

拜登还宣布反对日本钢铁制造商日本制铁收购美国钢铁公司的提议。他说，美国钢铁公司应该由美国所有，他说：“告诉我们的钢铁工人，我支持他们，我是认真的。”

His position is creating an economic rift with a crucial ally and is likely to be a focus of discussion when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits the White House this week for a meeting with the president and a state dinner on Wednesday.

日本首相岸田文雄本周将访问白宫，与美国总统会面，周三将举行国宴，届时他的立场可能会成为双方讨论的焦点。

Mr. Biden’s industrial policies, including his subsidies for technologies meant to reduce the fossil fuel emissions driving global warming, continue to rankle some leaders in Europe as well. Some of the moves have drawn internal opposition from Mr. Biden’s economic team and from outside economists who warn they are reducing the incentives for foreign companies to inject much-needed investment in the U.S. economy.

拜登的产业政策，包括为旨在减少导致全球变暖的化石燃料排放的技术提供补贴，也在继续激怒欧洲的一些领导人。拜登的经济团队和外部经济学家对其中一些举措表示反对，他们警告说，这些举措削弱了外国公司向美国经济注入亟需投资的积极性。

The politics behind Mr. Biden’s strategy appears clear: When it comes to manufacturing, the president wants to leave no doubt that he is as much “America First” as Mr. Trump, if not more.

拜登策略背后的政治因素似乎很明显：在制造业方面，总统希望毫无疑问地表明，他和特朗普一样，甚至比特朗普更坚持“美国优先”。

America’s trading partners “are looking at November and thinking, which is the worse outcome?” said Inu Manak, a fellow for trade policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, who wrote a scathing critique of Mr. Biden’s trade and industrial policies earlier this year. “And it’s the worse outcome, on the economic side, of not-too-great outcomes.”

美国的贸易伙伴“正在关注11月，并且在思考，哪个是更糟糕的结果？”华盛顿外交关系委员会贸易政策研究员伊努·马纳克说。今年早些时候，他曾撰文严厉批评拜登的贸易和产业政策。“在经济方面，这是不太好的结果中最糟糕的结果。”

Still, the moves appear to have helped Mr. Biden secure a coveted endorsement from the United Steelworkers union ahead of the November election. The union cited Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill and other economic legislation, including Buy America provisions, in its endorsement, along with a broader declaration that the president “is promoting domestic manufacturing and widespread prosperity, not just in the short term but well into the future.”

不过，这些举措似乎帮助拜登在11月大选前获得了美国钢铁工人联合会的重要支持。工会称他们的支持是由于拜登的基础设施法案和其他经济立法，包括购买美国货的条款，同时还发表了一份更广泛的声明，称总统“正在促进国内制造业和广泛繁荣，不仅是在短期内，而且是在未来”。

Mr. Trump attacked China and promised to revitalize American factories on his way to the White House in 2016. In office, he imposed tariffs on more than $300 billion of Chinese imports and restrictions on some American technology transfers to China. As he attempts a presidential comeback, Mr. Trump is calling for a sweeping new across-the-board tariff and a much greater “decoupling” of the American trade relationship with China.

2016年，特朗普在入主白宫的路上抨击中国，并承诺重振美国的工厂。在任期内，他对超过3000亿美元的中国进口商品征收关税，并限制美国向中国转让一些技术。在试图重返总统宝座之际，特朗普呼吁全面征收新的关税，并让美国与中国的贸易关系“脱钩”。

Mr. Biden has not gone that far, though he has retained many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs and added new limits on the export of certain high-tech American semiconductors to China. In official economic publications, Mr. Biden’s aides take a more nuanced view of trade than Mr. Trump espouses.

拜登还没有走到那么远，尽管他保留了特朗普的许多关税，并对美国向中国出口某些高科技半导体增加了新的限制。在经济领域的官方发布中，拜登助手对贸易的看法比特朗普更微妙。

“There are well-documented gains from trade and cross-border investment flows,” Mr. Biden’s team wrote in the annual Economic Report of the President, released last month. “The benefits of global integration include lower inflation, a greater variety of goods and services, more innovation, higher productivity, good jobs for American workers in exporting sectors, foreign direct investment in U.S. industries, and a higher likelihood of achieving our climate goals.”

“有充分证据表明，贸易和跨境投资流动带来了好处，”拜登的团队在上个月发布的年度《总统经济报告》中写道。“全球一体化的好处包括降低通货膨胀率、增加商品和服务种类、增强创新力、提高生产率、出口行业为美国工人提供好的工作、外国对美国工业的直接投资，以及实现气候目标的可能性增加。”

But, the Biden economists went on to warn, “policymakers must continue to pay careful attention to negative effects associated with global integration and some trade policies” — most notably, lost jobs and other damage to American workers.

但是，拜登的经济学家们继续警告说，“政策制定者必须继续密切关注与全球一体化和一些贸易政策相关的负面影响”——最明显的是，就业机会的丧失，以及对美国工人的其他损害。

Ms. Yellen raised such concerns with Chinese officials in recent days. The Biden administration is worried that Beijing is purposely flooding global markets with cheap and heavily subsidized green technologies, like electric vehicles and solar panels.

耶伦最近几天向中国官员提出了这样的担忧。拜登政府担心，北京正在故意向全球市场倾销廉价且获得大量补贴的绿色技术，如电动汽车和太阳能电池板。

“We’ve seen this story before,” Ms. Yellen said in a news conference near the end of the trip, noting that Chinese government support a decade ago “led to below-cost Chinese steel that flooded the global market and decimated industries across the world and in the United States. I’ve made clear that President Biden and I will not accept that reality again.”

“这是我们熟悉的桥段了，”耶伦在中国之行进入尾声时的一场新闻发布会上说，她所指的是10年前中国政府支持下“低于成本的中国钢铁淹没了全球市场，给包括美国在内的各国产业造成毁灭性打击。我已经向拜登总统明确表示，再也不会接受那样的现实。”

Chinese officials accused the Biden administration of protectionism. An official readout of Ms. Yellen’s meeting with Premier Li Qiang in Beijing stated “China hopes that the U.S. side will work with the Chinese side to adhere to the basic norms of market economy of fair competition and open cooperation, and refrain from politicizing and national-securitizing economic and trade issues.”

中国官员指责拜登政府的行为属于地方保护主义。耶伦和李强总理的北京会谈官方纪要称，“希望美方与中方一道，坚持公平竞争、开放合作的市场经济基本准则，不把经贸问题泛政治化、泛安全化。”

Mr. Biden has also risked antagonizing Japanese officials by declaring last month that it was “vital” that Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel remain “domestically owned and operated.”

拜登还在上月宣布，让总部位于匹兹堡的美国钢铁公司保持“由本国持有和运营”将是“至关重要的”，此举可能会引起日本方面的不满。

U.S. officials are reviewing the merger on national security and antitrust grounds. It has been encouraged to do so by the steelworkers union, by environmental groups worried about high emissions from the merged companies and by a bipartisan group of senators who predominantly hail from industrial states.

美国官员正在国家安全和反垄断层面审查该并购交易。这一行动得到了多方的支持，包括钢铁工会，对合并后的企业的高排放存有担忧的环保组织，以及主要来自工业州的两党参议员团体。

One of those critics, Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, is facing a tough re-election fight. He wrote Mr. Biden this month to request an investigation of Nippon’s ties to China’s steel industry. “This deal is bad for American workers and bad for our economic and national security,” Mr. Brown wrote.

在批评该并购的人士中，俄亥俄州民主党参议员谢罗德·布朗正面临艰难的连任选战。他在本月致信拜登，要求就日本制铁与中国钢铁产业的关联展开调查。“该交易对美国工人无益，对我们的经济和国家安全无益，”布朗写道。

Nippon and U.S. Steel officials are publicly staring Mr. Biden down, pushing forward with a shareholder vote on the merger this week and running digital ads in Pennsylvania highlighting the billions of dollars Nippon plans to invest in American production. Nippon has hired a prominent Washington lobbying firm, Akin Gump. Perhaps most importantly, it is attempting to negotiate peace with the steelworkers union, which has sharply criticized the proposal.

日本制铁和美国钢铁的官员公开表现出对拜登的不屑一顾，本周通过一次股东表决推进了双方的合并，并在宾夕法尼亚州打出了数字广告，强调日本制铁计划向美国生产注入数十亿美元投资。日本制铁聘请了声名显赫的华盛顿游说公司艾金·岗波。可能尤为重要的是，他们有意与强烈反对该交易的钢铁工人工会和谈。

“We will continue to advocate for this deal, and we are confident that a fair and thoughtful evaluation will result in its approval,” the companies said in a joint statement. “Nippon Steel’s investment is the best path forward for U.S. Steel employees, customers, stockholders, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the United States.”

“我们会继续为这项交易发声，我们相信，通过公平而充分的评估，交易会得到批准，”两家公司的联合声明中说。“日本制铁的投资，是最有利于美国钢铁公司雇员、客户、股东、宾夕法尼亚邦乃至合众国的一条路。”

Japanese officials appear surprised and upset by Mr. Biden’s comments and the prospect that the president could scuttle the merger.

对于拜登的言论以及总统出面阻止并购的可能性，日方官员似乎深感意外和不悦。

“For the United States to say that a Japanese company investing in an American manufacturing firm constitutes a threat to American national security is strange and troubling,” said Michael R. Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who discussed the merger this week with Japanese officials.

“一家日本公司向一家美国制造企业投资，竟被美国称为国家安全威胁，这是不寻常且令人不安的，”保守派机构美国企业研究所的经济学家迈克尔·R·斯特兰说，他在本周与日方官员讨论了此次并购。

“My sense is that the election year timing of this is significant,” Mr. Strain said. “It seems this is more about wanting to show support for the manufacturing sector in a swing state, and less about actual security concerns.”

“我的感觉是，正好赶上了选举年，这一点起到很大作用，”斯特兰说。“看起来更多的是想要表现出对一个摇摆州的制造业的支持，而不是真有什么安全担忧。”

Biden administration officials have played down the importance of the merger in the bilateral meeting set for Wednesday, saying it is one of many agenda items for the heads of state, including security concerns with China and North Korea and deepened cooperation with South Korea.

拜登政府官员在周三的一场双边会谈中淡化了此次并购的重要性，称这只是两国元首关心的众多议题中的一个，其中包括了中国和朝鲜带来的安全忧虑，以及与韩国加强合作。

“There is an awful lot of important things to talk about with Prime Minister Kishida,” John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, told reporters last week. “Certainly, our two economies are on that agenda, and I have no question that issues of economic — economy and trade will come up.”

“有许多重要的事情要与岸田首相谈，”白宫国家安全沟通顾问约翰·柯比上周对记者说。“双方的经济无疑也在议题之列，我确信会谈到经济问题——经济和贸易。”