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发表于 2016-7-11 19:31:39
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Openness, freedom and transparency contribute to the fourth principle we must ensure: fairness. Fairness sustains faith in the system. That faith is difficult to sustain when companies are forced to trade away their intellectual property just to enter or expand in a foreign market, or when vital supply chains are blocked. These kinds of actions undermine fair competition, which turns many off from competing at all.
开放、自由和透明都为我们必须保障的第四项原则创造了条件,这就是公平。公平能够保持人们对这个体系的信任。当公司企业为了开辟或扩大一个外国市场而不得不以其知识产权作交换时,或当关键的供应链被切断时,这种信任便难以维持。这类行为有损于公平竞争,挫伤了很多人的竞争意愿。
A growing number of countries in Asia are proving the value of these principles. And the United States deeply believes in them, because their value has been proven time and again, not only in times of prosperity but also in times of hardship, as well. At the end of the Vietnam War, there was a thriving commentary around the world on the idea of America’s economic decline. That seems to be a theme that kind of repeats itself every couple of decades. But all the while, then and now, these principles were nurturing a system of entrepreneurship and innovation that allowed two college students to found a small tech startup called Microsoft. And today, they are helping power companies like Solyndra, a green-energy startup in California that began producing solar panels in 2007 and now installs them in more than 20 countries worldwide.
越来越多的亚洲国家正在证明上述原则的价值。美国坚信上述原则,因为其价值一次又一次地得到验证,不仅是在繁荣时期,而且是在困难时刻。在越战结束时,全世界有关美国经济衰退的言论流行一时。这种言论似乎每隔20年便会再次冒头。然而,从过去到现在,上述原则扶持了一个鼓励创业和创新的体系,这个体系促使两名大学生创立了一家名叫微软的小型科技公司。今天,上述原则正在扶植着像加州绿色能源初创公司Solyndra这样的能源公司,这家公司自2007年起开始生产太阳能板,现在他们的太阳能板被用于全世界20多个国家。
Every time in history when the United States has experienced a downturn, we’ve overcome it through reinvention and innovation. Now, these capacities are not unique or innate to the people of the United States. They are activated by our economic model, which we work hard to keep open, free, transparent, and fair, a model that has its imperfections but remains the most powerful source of prosperity known to humankind.
历史上,美国经济每一次陷入衰退,都能通过革新与创新脱离困境。然而,这些能力并不为美国人民所特有或与生俱来;它们是由我们的经济模式所激发的,我们奋力维持这样一个开放、自由、透明、公平的模式。这个模式有它的不完善之处,但仍然是人类所知的最强大的繁荣之源。
Of course, no nation is perfect when it comes to safeguarding these principles, including my own. We all recognize the temptation to bend them. And we all recognize the inevitability of human nature's capacity to look for ways around them. Some nations are making short-term gains doing that. Some developing countries—admirably focused on fighting poverty—might be slow to implement at home the same rules they benefit from abroad. And a number of nations, wealthy in the aggregate but often poorer per capita, might even think the rules don’t apply to them.
当然,在维护这些原则的时候,没有一个国家是完美的,包括我自己的国家。我们都知道到给原则打折扣的诱惑力,我们都认识到人类本性中那种对原则绕道而行的能力会不可避免地出现。有些国家正在那样做而获得短期的利益;有些发展中国家——它们正令人钦佩地集中精力与贫穷作斗争——当在国内实施那些它们在国际贸易中获益的相同的规则时或许行动较为迟缓;还有一些整体富裕但按人均所得较贫困的国家,甚至可能认为那些规则并不适用于它们。
In fact, all who benefit from open, free, transparent, and fair competition have a vital interest and a responsibility to follow the rules. Enough of the world’s commerce takes place with developing nations, that leaving them out of the rules-based system would render the system unworkable. And that, ultimately, that would impoverish everyone.
事实上,对于所有那些在开放、自由、透明和公平的竞争中获益的国家,那些规则不仅与它们的切身利益相关,而且它们有责任遵守。与发展中国家进行的国际商务数额是如此庞大,任凭这部分商务被置身于有规则可循的系统之外,将使这个系统无法产生作用,而这最终将使所有人受损。
The businessmen and women of Asia seek the benefits that these principles offer. Malaysian manufacturers want access to markets overseas. Indian firms want fair treatment when they invest abroad. Chinese artists want to protect their creations from piracy. Every society seeking to develop a strong research and technology sector wants intellectual property protections because, without them, innovation comes with a much higher risk and fewer rewards. People everywhere want to have the chance to spend their earnings on products from other places, from refrigerators to iPods.
亚洲的男女企业家都在追求这些原则所带来的利益。马来西亚制造商需要进入国际市场;印度公司在国外投资时希望获得公平待遇;中国艺术家希望他们的作品不被盗版。每一个力图发展强劲有力的科研技术行业的社会均希望保护知识产权,因为没有这些保护将使创新的风险加大、回报减少。全世界人民都希望有机会把自己的收入用于获得从冰箱到iPod的其他地方的产品。
Now, these four principles are easily uttered and embraced, but they do not implement themselves. So our challenge is always to translate them into practice. And my country is hard at work doing that, and we encourage other governments to join us in this effort.
这四项原则容易表述和获得赞同,但它们不会自动落实。因此,我们的挑战一贯是,要把它们转化为实际行动。我的国家正在努力这样做,我们也鼓励其他国家政府参与我们这一努力。
The United States is taking steps to promote these principles around the world through multilateral and regional institutions, new trade agreements, and outreach to new partners, to enlist us all in the quest for inclusive, sustainable growth. These steps are connected to and build upon the work we are doing to revitalize our own economy.
美国正采取步骤,通过多边与地区性机构、新的贸易协定和主动寻求新伙伴,在全世界促进这些原则,让世界各国共同追求包容的、可持续的发展。这些步骤与我们正在进行的重振我们本国经济的努力相关,并且也在此基础上发展。
First, we are working through regional and international institutions to achieve balanced, inclusive, and sustainable growth. That starts with our commitment to APEC, the premier organization for pursuing economic integration and growth in the Asia-Pacific region. And President Obama is pleased to be the chair and host of APEC this year in Hawaii.
首先,我们正在通过地区与国际机构努力争取平衡、包容与可持续的发展。这种努力始于我们对于亚太经合组织的一贯支持,它是在亚太地区追求经济一体化及经济增长的主要机构。奥巴马总统很高兴今年在夏威夷主办并主持亚太经合组织会议。
We want APEC to address next-generation trade and competition challenges, like strengthening global supply chains; empowering smaller companies to connect to global markets; promoting market-driven, non-discriminatory innovation policy. We are pursuing a low-carbon agenda by working to reduce barriers to trade in clean-energy technologies, and we hope to reach agreement on implementing transparency principles to promote economic growth and the rule of law on a 21st century field of play.
我们希望亚太经合组织应对贸易与竞争的下一代挑战,例如:加强全球供应链、帮助小型企业与全球市场接轨、促进由市场驱动的、非歧视性的创新政策等。我们正通过努力降低清洁能源技术的贸易壁垒推行一个低碳议程,我们还希望就实施透明原则达成协议,以促进经济增长和21世纪竞争场上的法治。
Because burdensome regulations and incompatible sets of rules in different countries can hold back trade and growth every bit as much as tariffs, we are also working at APEC to find common ground on transparent, effective regulation, with broader public consultation and better coordination. The quality of the rules we put in place is just as important as our willingness to enforce them.
鉴于不同国家的繁文缛节和互不相容的规则如同关税一样阻碍贸易与增长,我们也在与亚太经合组织共同努力,通过更广泛的公共磋商和更好的协作,就透明、有效的规则找到共同基础。我们采用的规则的质量与我们实施这些规则的意愿同样重要。
And I have to mention that discrimination against women is another barrier to fair competition and economic growth. A 2007 United Nations study found that the Asia-Pacific loses at least $58 billion of economic output every year because of restrictions on women’s access to employment and gender gaps in education. So, as host of APEC, we are organizing a high-level Summit on Women and the Economy in San Francisco this September.
我必须指出的是,歧视妇女是公平竞争和经济增长的另一障碍。据2007年联合国发布的一项研究报告,由于限制妇女的就业机会和教育领域的性别差异,亚太地区每年的经济产出损失至少580亿美元。因此,作为亚太经合组织论坛的主办国,我们将于今年9月在旧金山召开一次高级别的妇女与经济峰会。
We are also working though the World Trade Organization to address continuing challenges to fair competition. Take government procurement. The purchases that governments make represent an important part of the global economy, and citizens everywhere deserve to know that their governments are getting the best product at the best prices. Consistent with the WTO Government Procurement Agreement that we signed, America lets companies from other nations who have signed that same agreement compete for appropriate American Government contracts. We would naturally expect countries that want access to our government contracts to offer our companies genuine access to theirs in return.
我们还正通过世界贸易组织来努力解决公平竞争不断面临的问题。例如政府采购问题。政府所进行的采购代表着全球经济的重要部分,任何地区的公民均有权知道政府是在以最好的价格购买最佳产品。根据我们签署的世界贸易组织《政府采购协议》,美国允许其他签署了同样协议的国家的公司竞争适宜的美国政府合同。我们当然希望那些想获得我国政府合同机会的国家也真诚地为我们的公司提供竞争对方政府合同的机会。
Across the full spectrum of international institutions—the G8 and G20, the IMF, OECD, ILO, WTO, and others—we are working to level playing fields and encourage robust and fair economic activity. Just as the WTO eliminated harmful tariffs in the 1990s, today we need institutions capable of providing solutions to new challenges, from some activities of state-owned enterprises to the kinds of barriers emerging behind borders.
我们还通过各种国际机构组织——如8国集团、20国集团、国际货币基金组织、经合组织、国际劳工组织、世贸组织等——来努力实现平等的竞争环境,鼓励健全而公平的经济活动。正如上世纪90年代世贸组织废除了有害的关税,今天我们需要有一些机构来提供办法,解决从国有企业的某些活动到境内出现壁垒等新问题。
We also support innovative partnerships that develop norms and rules to address these new concerns. We should build on the model of the Santiago Principles on sovereign wealth funds, which were negotiated jointly by host governments, recipient governments, the World Bank, IMF, OECD, and the sovereign funds themselves. This code of conduct governing sovereign investment practices has reassured stakeholders — investor nations, recipient nations, and the private sector. And it may prove a useful model for other shared challenges, like ensuring that state-owned companies and enterprises compete on the same terms as private companies.
我们支持有创意的合作关系,针对这些新问题制定标准和规则。我们应借鉴有关主权财富基金的《圣地亚哥原则》模式,这些原则是由东道国政府、接受国政府、世界银行、国际货币基金组织、经合组织以及主权基金等共同谈判而成。管理主权投资活动的行为准则消除了利益相关方——如投资国、接受国、以及私营公司——的疑虑。这对于解决其他共同的问题或许是一个有用的模式,如确保国有公司和企业与民间公司按照同样的规则进行竞争。
As a second step, we are pursuing new cutting-edge trade deals that raise the standards for fair competition even as they open new markets. For instance, the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, or KORUS, will eliminate tariffs on 95 percent of U.S. consumer and industrial exports within five years. Its tariff reductions alone could increase exports of American goods by more than $10 billion and help South Korea’s economy grow by 6 percent. So, whether you are an American manufacturer of machinery or a Korean chemicals exporter, this deal lowers the barriers to reaching new customers.
第二个步骤是,我们将谋求一种新型的贸易协定,使它们在开拓新市场同时,提升公平竞争的标准。例如,《韩国与美国自由贸易协定》,即KORUS,将在5年时间内取消美国95%的消费品和工业出口产品关税。仅消除关税就能为美国出口产品带来100亿美元以上的增长,并促使韩国经济增长6%。所以,无论是美国机械制造商,还是韩国化学品出口商,这一协定均为获得新客户减少了障碍。
But this trade deal isn’t simply about who pays what tariff at our borders. It is a deeper commitment to creating conditions that let both our nations prosper as our companies compete fairly. KORUS includes significant improvements on intellectual property, fair labor practices, environmental protection and regulatory due process.
然而,这项贸易协定并非只涉及谁在我们的边界支付多少关税的问题。它是更深一层的承诺,即创造条件,让两国在彼此公司的公平竞争中走向繁荣。《韩国与美国自由贸易协定》涵盖了在知识产权、公正对待劳工、环保及正当监管程序上的明显改进。
And let me add that the benefits of KORUS extend beyond the economic bottom line. Because this agreement represents a powerful strategic bet. It signals that America and South Korea are partners for the long term—economically, diplomatically, people to people. So, for all these reasons, President Obama is pursuing congressional approval of KORUS, together with necessary Trade Adjustment Assistance, as soon as possible. He is also pursuing passage of the Colombia and Panamanian Free Trade Agreements as well.
让我补充一点——该协定的好处不限于经济底线。它意味着有力的战略性抉择。它标志着,美国与韩国在经济、外交和民间交流领域是长期合作伙伴。因此,奥巴马总统正在谋求国会尽快批准《韩国与美国自由贸易协定》,以及必要的“贸易调整援助”计划。他也在谋求批准与哥伦比亚和与巴拿马的自由贸易协定。
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