March 16, 2018
It would be interesting to know how the paper made that determination, but it referred to “China’s theft of American intellectual property” as a matter of fact. China is bound by the TRIPS provisions in the WTO, but there are many different interpretations of these rules.
Perhaps the NYT has analyzed China’s practices and determined they violate TRIPS. If so, they should share this analysis with its readers.
It is also worth noting that the enforcement of intellectual property rules in China is a factor increasing inequality. The overwhelming beneficiaries of these rules are at the top end of the income distribution. On the other hand, if China doesn’t have to pay royalties and licensing fees to Bill Gates and his ilk, the items China produces will be available for lower costs to US consumers.
This is the same argument that “free traders” always make about how tariffs are bad, except the beneficiaries from the protection of intellectual property are almost exclusively people at the top end of the income ladder, and there is much more money involved than with tariffs. Of course, if we have longer and stronger protections for intellectual property then liberal foundations can give more money to economists to figure out the causes of inequality.
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