Beating up on China

Bring out the lawyers, because they're the only ones to make anything from this. China is not considered a market society by international law, and will have to become one for entry into the WTO. It doesn't help China that it today enjoys a $124 billion annual trade surplus with the US either. So lately, the US has been engaged in some really short term thinking and have been challenging China on just about every industry, claiming China is dumping exports onto the US market unfairly. Not that that isn't true -- but it probably is false as well. China has an explosive economy right now, and having a trade surplus is part of having an economy that's growing too fast for its britches. Using trade law to subdue China though is the wrong move. The US needs China to boom [PDF], and they need China to sustain that boom -- the healthier the Chinese economy is, the better for the US. The more Chinese with money, the more people there will be there to buy US export. The US has to realize that on some things, it can no longer compete. If it's not China that's manufacturing them cheaply, it's going to be some 3rd world country. (For a quick lesson on World Trade and the practice of dumping, click here! [PPT])