September 18, 2018
The NYT erred badly with an article that told readers, “China Once Looked Tough on Trade: Now Its Options Are Dwindling.” The article claims that China is running out of ways to retaliate against Trump’s tariffs because it imports so much less from the United States than the United States imports from China. In fact, China has many other ways to retaliate.
The most effective would probably be to stop paying attention to patent and copyright claims of US corporations. It can encourage domestic Chinese companies to make millions of copies of Windows-based computers, without paying a penny to Microsoft. It can do the same with iPhones and Apple. In fact, it can encourage Chinese companies to export these unauthorized copies all over the world, destroying Microsoft’s and Apple’s markets in third countries.
It can do the same with fertilizers and pesticides, making Monsanto and other chemical giants unhappy. And, it can do this with Pfizer and Merck’s drugs, flooding the world with low-cost generic drugs. Even a short period of generic availability may do permanent damage to these companies’ markets.
There are many other things that China’s government can do to harm US corporate interests, such as making it difficult for companies like General Motors to sell in the Chinese market. US companies would be extremely unhappy about being locked out of the biggest market in the world.
In short, the NYT really missed the boat on this one. China has many, many options that it can pursue in its trade war which would have devastating consequences for US corporations.
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