U.S. Lawmakers Practice Gross Hypocrisy with Protectionist Bill
By seeking to punish China for subsidizing certain
industries, is it a case of America saying 'do as I say, not as I do'? According
to this editorial from the state-run China Daily, Not only is the bill an act
of outright hypocrisy, it will also do damage to America's bottom line.
The
passage by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives of a protectionist bill
allowing duties on subsidized Chinese imports will strain Sino-U.S. trade relations
and make prospects for a global recovery even more uncertain.
Since
China has already cut its 2011 trade surplus to 2.1 percent of economic output from
a high of 7.5 percent in 2007, the shock felt by China is understandable. Meanwhile,
the American trade deficit remains as high as 4.8 percent of U.S. GDP, despite its
rising protectionism.
While
the United States, which proclaims itself the champion of free trade and
globalization, is accusing other trade partners, particular China, of "not
playing by the rules," its lawmakers are blatantly abusing their power to
massage America's own domestic trade rules.
Such
outright hypocrisy among U.S. politicians bodes ill during a period in which a
lack of political will has already prevented most debt-laden countries in the
West from introducing timely but painful and necessary reforms to address their
economic problems.
Even
worse, the myopic bipartisan support for the bill lays bare how eager U.S.
politicians are to stoke rising protectionism, in disregard of the free-trade
spirit they have promoted. This presents a clear and present threat to the
steady growth the world needs.
The
difficulties that America needs to surmount are huge given its sluggish
economic growth and high unemployment. One would think it reasonable to expect
U.S. policy makers to try and rebuild American competitiveness in the aftermath
of the 2008 financial crisis.
But protectionism
is definitely not the solution. All this will do is dig
the U.S. economic hole deeper.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
By breaking from its decades-old practice of not authorizing the U.S.
Commerce Department to impose countervailing duties on goods from countries in
a non-market economy
context, U.S. lawmakers are
now attempting to take the easy way out.
[Editor's
Note: A "non-market economy" is currently defined as an economy that
relies chiefly on non-market forces to allocate goods and resources and determine
prices. The current U.S. trade bill came after a U.S. Federal Court ruled that
the Commerce Department has no legal authority to impose countervailing duties
on goods from "non-market economy countries." The court explained that
government payments cannot be characterized as "subsidies" within the
context of a non-market economy, and that the Obama Administration lacks legal
ground to impose a three-year tariff on imports of low-grade Chinese tires.]
Instead
of seeking to promote America's indisputable advantages in innovation and
adaptation, they are seeking to protect uncompetitive U.S. industries, at a
cost to the country's consumers and crucial U.S. trade relations.
It
doesn't take a trade expert to expose the fallacy of selling protectionism as a
long-term solution to the structural problems of the world's largest economy. Before
signing the bill into law, President Barack Obama should ask himself, will protectionism
really save American jobs and help it escape the quagmire it has got itself
into?
