Good afternoon this is Cato Daily podcast with your host Anastasia Yglova.

Today is Wednesday, April 11th.

After the US launched two dispute settlement cases with China over intellectual property

rights protection and market access at the WTO on Tuesday,

China's response was harsher than usual,

saying it would seriously damage bilateral cooperation

and harm business ties.

Is a trade war with China at hand?

Associate Director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies,

Dan Eikinson, thinks that's awfully pessimistic.

The U.S. China Trade relationship isn't looking too cozy these days, do you agree?

I think the US China Trade

relationship is very healthy two-way trade has increased significantly US

businesses are doing very well there. US exports have increased by 32%

2006 over 2005 which is a rate to nearly double

what our exports grew to other countries over that period.

But politically there was a lot of pressure on the relationship.

I think it stems from the fact that we do have a very large trade deficit with China.

The Congress has been putting constant pressure on the administration to get tougher with China,

to compel them to raise the value of their currency, to rein in

alleged unfair trade practices, subsidization, and other issues.

Over the past eight weeks, there have been 3 WTO cases filed and one administrative action here by the Commerce Department imposing preliminary countervailing duties on Chinese paper products which have been perceived by many in the public and

...