●进入80年代以来,美国外贸逆差愈演愈烈,长期居高不下,成为美国朝野和世界各国的热门话题。美国对那些在双边贸易中对美国有顺差的国家和地区,援引美国贸易法301条款,进行报复和威胁,迫使对方进一步开放商品市场和服务市场。80年代中期以来,美国对华贸易“逆差”迅速增加。按照美国海关统计,1986年美国对华贸易逆差21亿美元,到1991年增加到127亿美元。本期发表的《对美国外贸逆差的初步分析》一文,对美国外贸逆差性质,从逆差伙伴和逆差的商品结构等诸方面进行了详细分析。作者指出,美国海关统计的对华贸易逆差中,有相当一部分是从香港等地区过去对美贸易顺差转移过来的。所以,中美贸易不平衡问题应当从中国经济圈的整体来看,而不应当只对中国大陆施加贸易保护主义的压力。文章还认为,美国应将改善外贸逆差的努力放在不断提高劳动生产率、大力发展出口上,应把主要精力用来对付来自日本和西欧各国的竞争性贸易逆差上。 ● Since the 1980s, the US foreign trade deficit has intensified and remained high for a long time. It has become a hot topic in the U.S. government and the world. The United States invokes Article 301 of the U.S. Trade Law for those countries and regions that have surpluses with the United States in bilateral trade, retaliates and threatens, forcing the other party to further open up the commodity market and service market. Since the mid-1980s, the US trade deficit with China has increased rapidly. According to U.S. Customs statistics, in 1986, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 2.1 billion U.S. dollars, and by 1991 it had increased to 12.7 billion U.S. dollars. The “Preliminary Analysis of the U.S. Foreign Trade Deficit” published in this issue provides a detailed analysis of the nature of U.S. foreign trade deficits, from the perspectives of deficit partners and the commodity structure of deficits. The author points out that a large part of the U.S. customs statistics on China’s trade deficit with China was transferred from Hong Kong and other regions in the past to the US trade surplus. Therefore, the trade imbalance between China and the United States should be viewed from the perspective of China’s economic circle as a whole and should not only exert pressure on trade protectionism in China. The article also believes that the United States should improve its foreign trade deficit by continuously increasing its labor productivity and vigorously developing its exports. It should focus its efforts on coping with the competitive trade deficit from Japan and Western European countries.