對美國保護主義的指責是“胡扯”

Warnings of US protectionism by Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, and others are “rubbish”, Donald Trump’s top trade official has said in a new attack on the big trade surpluses of China, Europe and Japan.

唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的最高貿易官員表示，國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)總裁克里斯蒂娜?拉加德(Christine Lagarde)及其他人發出的有關美國保護主義的警告是“胡扯”。他對中國、歐洲和日本的鉅額貿易順差發起了新的攻擊。

Speaking ahead of the arrival in Washington of global finance officials for this week’s IMF and World Bank spring meetings, commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said those accusing the Trump administration of protectionism were firing at the wrong target.

本週全球財政官員匯聚華盛頓參加IMF和世界銀行(World Bank)春季會議前夕，美國商務部長威爾伯?羅斯(Wilbur Ross)稱，那些指責特朗普政府實行保護主義的人搞錯了目標。

The billionaire investor, who Mr Trump has put in charge of trade policy and tasked with finding ways to reduce the US’s $500bn trade deficit, said veiled criticism by Ms Lagarde and other defenders of multilateralism about rising protectionism were clearly aimed at the new administration.

這名億萬富翁投資者——特朗普讓他主管貿易政策，並委任他找到減少美國5000億美元貿易赤字的方式——表示，拉加德及多邊主義的其他捍衛者對保護主義升溫的含蓄批評，明顯是針對美國新一屆行政當局。

“It is! It is! And the response is very simple: we are the least protectionist of the major areas. We are far less protectionist than Europe. We are far less protectionist than Japan. We are far less protectionist than China,” he told the Financial Times in an interview.

“就是這樣！就是這樣！而回應非常簡單：我們是保護主義程度最輕的主要地區。我們遠沒有歐洲的保護主義那麼嚴重。我們遠沒有日本的保護主義那麼嚴重。我們遠沒有中國的保護主義那麼嚴重，”他在接受英國《金融時報》採訪時表示。

“We also have trade deficits with all three of those places. So they talk free trade. But in fact what they practise is protectionism. And every time we do anything to defend ourselves, even against the puny obligations that they have, they call that protectionism. It’s rubbish.”

“我們還對所有這三個地區都有貿易赤字。所以他們在空談自由貿易。但是事實上他們做的是保護主義那一套。而每次我們採取自衛行動，哪怕是針對他們應該承擔的微小義務，他們都會稱之爲保護主義。那是胡扯。”