We can do better than tarriffs. Take the value of all the money collected from tarriffs on Chinese goods and use it to subsidize good from countries that sign on to a trading pact that excludes China and which aligns itself to open markets and strong IP laws. In other words, don't only punish companies for operating factories in China, reward them for moving those factories to Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil, etc, providing those countries sign up to the pact and agree to strong laws protecting IP. China's already expensive and we would see a tidal wave of companies moving factories out to better, cheaper partners. China would wither. Politically might be tough to sell a subsidy of Malaysian good to an American consumer but Trump has already spun the idea that China is paying so maybe he can message it that way. Ultimately the policy would be revenue neutral.
According to Tim Cook himself, that better and cheaper partners does not exist. Not other places in the world churns out college grads at the rate like China. Those Southeast Asia countries doesn’t stand a chance. China is in the position its in today from over 30 years of planning and executing, in both domestic policies and foreign policies. You can’t change that momentum in just a few years.
30 years of a policy like that would change it. This doesn't need to be a short term policy.
Unfortunately, American politics doesn’t work that way. Obama can enact foreign policies only to be teared down by Trump. Americans simply cannot commit to long term relationship. Other countries knows that, this is why they rather want to negotiate with China. Because China actually commits to the treaties they sign.
The TPP did something of the sort. Too bad they also negotiated it in secret and added a bunch of draconian copyright stuff.
Overthrow capitalism in the US and Chinese workers would be quick join in and overthrow their state and business rulers too. Or the other way around would work too.
You may not understand it clearly - China’s problem is the communist party/government; and the solution is to get rid of this 20th-century’s cancer in China. Communist party rules with two things - lies and violence. So they cheat on international treaties they have signed - not just trade treaties, but others like the one that promised to keep the capitalism system in HongKong. Like their North Korean cousin, they do not follow any rules, laws, or common values. They believe that, as long as they can forcibly control their own people, they can control the government to do anything beneficial to themselves; they believe that, with cheating or with force, they can dominate the free world. Wake up, my friends. This is the cancer with no cure. The only solution is a revolution, peaceful if possible, to make China a new democracy ruled by law! Chinese people will win in the process, Americans will win, the free world will win. Same Chinese, people in Taiwan and people in HongKong respect laws and treaties they sign, follow common values they believe in, and make friends with the free world countries.
Nah, all rising powers do this. Hollywood is built on stolen film patents. All established powers drape a gossamer film of “rule of law” over their reality: might makes right.
Shameless Taiwanese still live in their fantasy
Dude. Where are we getting the money? The tariffs are levied at our ports on the suppliers importing the goods. They pay it, then they pass the expense on to the customers or they absorb the hit themselves. We don’t have a value added tax that is levied automatically at the ports and deposited into a government account to be spent on whatever. Need the chicken before the egg here.
I don’t think the government should be putting tariffs on things. They would be wise to add a constitutional amendment outlawing tariffs