Tuesday 30 October 2018

“How China’s blatant IP theft, long overlooked by US, sparked trade war” | SCMP


This is a really good article. Explaining the frustration of China's trading partners to its consistent and long-standing breaches of agreed deals under the World Trade Organisation. American president after president has called it out and then done nothing. Until Trump. Mind, I don't think the action he's taking makes much sense (why pull out of the TPP?) and so think many other observers. But it's something. And whether that something turns out to be better or worse than doing nothing still remains to be seen. I'm betting something ok will come out of it. Not all that Trump wants, but more than the usual platitudes of "win-win" which usually means China wins and China wins. In short I'm guessing that China will have to do something concrete about its predatory mercantilist practices. And if that's so it will have been worth it. 
Another six months to a year I'd guess. 

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