Here’s the Financial Times:
For any politician to admit that a signature policy has backfired is unusual.
So it was refreshing when Robert Lighthizer, Donald Trump’s trade chief, last week blamed the bind that US farmers are in on his boss’s decision in early 2017 to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“We have a real problem,” Mr Lighthizer told the Senate finance committee. “We have a situation that’s not good now and it’s going to get bad very quickly.”
Mr Lighthizer’s concern is all about Japan. The CPTPP — as the remaining Pacific Rim countries renamed their trade pact following the US’s departure — came into force in late December, followed by the EU-Japan trade deal in early February. Since then US farm exports to Japan have sunk, as producers from other countries benefit from preferential tariffs. Sales are being lost by the Americans, along with market share.
It’s always good news when protectionists wake up to the fact that their policies have failed.
And it’s also good news when small countries push back against bullies:
The Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to prevent countries from using Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications equipment in their next-generation wireless networks has faltered, with even some of America’s closest allies rejecting the United States’ argument that the companies pose a security threat.
Over the past several months, American officials have tried to pressure, scold and, increasingly, threaten other nations that are considering using Huawei in building fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless networks. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, has pledged to withhold intelligence from nations that continue to use Chinese telecom equipment.
There is no evidence that Huawei poses a security threat to the US. But there is evidence that the US is using this issue as a way of pressuring China to give in to our demands on trade, unrelated to national security. The world is better off when US bullying fails to achieve its objective.
READER COMMENTS
E. Harding
Mar 25 2019 at 1:10am
“The world is better off when US bullying fails to achieve its objective.”
I agree entirely.
Don Boudreaux
Mar 25 2019 at 7:49am
Scott: Nicely done. I would add to your correct conclusion that so, too, is the United States better off when US bullying fails to achieve its objective.
TMC
Mar 25 2019 at 5:39pm
A. Can’t we just offer to match the tariff rates, without all the bad parts of of the treaty?
B. China qualifies as a small country? I too don’t like the US bullying anyone, but Huawei is taken as a threat by anyone interested in security. It’s foolish not to. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/26/is-huawei-a-national-security-threat/
Felix
Mar 25 2019 at 9:09pm
Your link comes down to “Probably not now, but what if they change in the future?” It also throws out guilt by association (the founder and president was in the army) and thinks being funded by the Chinese government matters (how about all the subsidies US companies get, ie the Ex-Im Bank subsidies?). China wastes lots of money funding companies; Chinese taxpayers and Chinese competitors lose, we gain. This is not a problem for us.
Your link is nothing but gossip, innuendo, “what if”, and no facts. If that’s the best the anti-Huawei people can come up with, I’m all for buying their gear.
Felix
Mar 25 2019 at 9:11pm
Your link also says, near the end: “The reality is that China is no more a national security threat than the U.S. is to China”.
Felix
Mar 25 2019 at 10:56pm
I was so busy replying about your link that I forgot the most obvious response to your first question.
We could just drop our tariffs regardless of what others do. But we won’t, for the same reason we wont just lower our tariffs to match: the first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics.
Michael Sandifer
Mar 25 2019 at 9:08pm
Huawei makes great phones for the money. I haven’t let any claims by this government dissuade me from buying their products.
Lorenzo from Oz
Mar 25 2019 at 9:24pm
No evidence of a security threat may be putting it a little high.
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/281731/chinas-plan-for-global-supremacy
Phil H
Mar 25 2019 at 9:50pm
The argument that Huawei is a threat has always been (so far as I can tell): PRISM. The USA (/NSA/CIA/whoever) knows that we do it; therefore it is inevitable that the Chinese will do it.
I find the argument to be quite strong, and I strongly support Huawei installing stuff all over the world. I look forward to the day when the Chinese can listen in, and know that American secret politics is just as dysfunctional as the public politics. I hope the Americans know the same about China.
Warren Platts
Mar 26 2019 at 8:25pm
If there is no evidence that Huawey is spying, it is only because they have not been caught yet. It is their job, as patriotic Chinese, to spy. And it wouldn’t be the first time.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies
Scott Sumner
Mar 27 2019 at 8:49pm
Don, Good point.
Warren, That story was later discredited.
BAD
Mar 29 2019 at 5:02pm
As a classical liberal, I fully endorse Scott’s view, however as a security expert working for a Fortune 500 firm, with direct knowledge of a surreptitious backdoor we discovered in at least one Huawei product, I believe the paranoia to be well founded.
Comments are closed.