You can't have that many! China scuppers US, EU tech tariff talks The EU and the US have accused China of continuing to block attempts to get rid of trade tariffs on technology goods by asking for far too many exclusions. The various governments have been discussing the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where China has been trying the …
> Whatever the Chinese impose on others in terms of trade tariffs, impose on them. They will soon get the point.
If the trade balance between China and their trading partners was balanced, you'd have a good point.
However, since China is a net exporter of practically everything, reciprocity is not a realistic proposition.
em.. if their goods cost more to buy in our markets because of the tariffs we impose on them, then it does matter as it levels the field for local manufacturers
Don't forget that the Chinese have been cheating and waging economic war on the west for decades now by deliberately pegging their currency to the dollar and not allowing it to float to it's true high value. This makes their goods and labour very cheap and also makes our products expensive in their market.
Because China exports so much more than they import, free trade agreements are in their benefit.
It would probably be in our benefit to slap a tariff on all goods exported from China, but the free market lovers long took over our government - they're owned by the corporations that exported much of their manufacturing to China, and benefit from cheap parts from China for stuff that's labeled "made in the USA"
I'm not a big lover of governments messing with free trade. Any attempt at restricting trade or imposing tariffs/duty always has side effects.
Look at the enormous duty on fairy products into Canada. Hopelessly inefficient dairy farms and ridiculously expensive, yet shit cheese in the shops.
"They will soon get the point."
Would be nice if it worked, really. Back in the 1960s, the U.S. imposed heavy tariffs (90 % says one source) on European steel products (targeting imported cars specifically, but they didn't want to go ahead and say it outright). The European Community answered by imposing a 79 % tariff on U.S. produce, driving the price of pipe tobacco and bananas up noticeably. Most European car manufacturers responded by manufacturing cars in the U.S. and in countries nearby on which the U.S. did not impose those ridiculous tariffs.
Both the U.S. and the European tariffs are still in place 50 years later. Guess nobody learned anything from the whole episode, except that that the state, being the man in the middle, can fill its coffers with most consumers not noticing that it is at their expense.
........... pretty much entirely based on what the Western negotiators say is going on. I do not know whether the Chinese have a case, a bit of a case or no case at all - and I certainly would not gain any insight into that by virtue of reading something that could just as well have been drafted by the Foreign Office.
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