Posted on 12/22/2011 7:47:54 AM PST by NYer
This month, communist China is celebrating its 10th anniversary of joining the World Trade Organization. The subtitle ought to be “China’s 10th anniversary of cheating the United States.”
The globalists talked the U.S. into supporting this cozy trade relationship with China by getting American manufacturers and farmers to salivate at the prospect of gaining access to the world’s biggest market. China, on the other hand, joined the WTO to implement its plan to grow into an economic superpower. It wants to accomplish this the same way the United States became powerful in our pre-New Deal century — by protecting local industries and financing our government with tariffs on imports.
Somehow, China learned the “Animal Farm” lesson: All are equal in the WTO, but some are more equal than others. China enhanced its WTO membership with special breaks and loopholes that allowed them to sell slave-manufactured goods worldwide but protected its own industries from foreign competition.
The result? China sells microwave ovens for $49 in the United States, but the U.S.-built Jeep Grand Cherokee sells for $85,000 in China because the Chinese add tariffs and other fees to original U.S. prices of $27,490. Since only a few Chinese millionaires can afford such a luxury, fewer than 2,500 have been sold in China this year.
The 25 percent tariff is only one reason why the Grand Cherokee costs three times as much in China as in the U.S. China also imposes a sales tax of up to 40 percent of the price, based on the car’s size, and it also gives generous subsidies and extraordinary regulatory favors to state-owned companies.
Should U.S. companies retaliate by building their own plants in China? China limits foreign manufacturers of auto assembly plants to only 50 percent ownership and requires U.S. companies building plants to give China its U.S. patents and trade secrets.
China was admitted to the WTO after promising to accept its rules about free trade. But as the lawyers say when you end up disappointed by a contract, you should have read the fine print.
The fine print in China’s WTO agreement was in an attached document euphemistically labeled an “accession agreement,” which gave China status as a “non-market economy” and spelled out thousands of details about special preferences for China. China was allowed to impose higher tariffs than other countries and ever since has protected its auto industry by a prohibitive tariff on imported cars.
By contrast, South Korea’s tariff on imported cars is 8 percent, and the European Union’s is 10 percent.
China is flooding the global market with cheap solar panels. The U.S. has filed complaints with the WTO against Chinese tariffs on steel and subsidies for wind power equipment, but don’t expect the WTO to clamp down on China.
Meanwhile, as more and more U.S. public schools are making vaccinations a requirement for admittance, China is preparing to take over the vaccine market. China’s Food and Drug Administration brags that China has more than 30 vaccine-producing companies with an annual production capacity of nearly one billion doses.
Are parents willing to inject their kids with Chinese vaccines? Chinese cough syrup killed 93 people in Central America in 2007. At least 81 U.S. deaths in 2008 were caused by Heparin, a Chinese-made blood thinner widely used in surgery. Tainted milk powder poisoned hundreds of thousands of Chinese babies.
An expert on Chinese health at the Council of Foreign Relations, Yanzhong Huang, pointed out the difference between Chinese and U.S. medicine safety. Unlike China, U.S. vaccines are kept safe by supporting institutions such as “the market economy, democracy, media monitoring, civil society, as well as a well-developed business ethics code,” plus inspections and regulations, severe punishments for violators and, of course, lawsuits by trial lawyers.
For decades U.S. globalists have closed their eyes to the fact that China is a communist dictatorship. During the 70s and 80s, and even the 90s, the globalists predicted that as China pursued a market economy, it would evolve into capitalism, economic freedom and then political freedom.
Dream on; it didn’t happen. The Communist Party still runs the country; there is no democracy movement even 22 years after the Tiananmen massacre; so-called reforms don’t include changing the party in power; and the Internet didn’t produce freedom, but instead, it became a device to monitor and control the people.
Chinese spokesmen are bragging: “We believe that our 10-year arrangement has been successful.” Indeed, it has. China’s national strategy is still based on Sun Tzu: All warfare is based on deception. It’s time for apologies from the U.S. free-traders who were so wrong in their predictions about China.
Bump
Treason. Pure and simple.
Schlafly bump!
Let me see if I have this straight - The Chinese send us valuable goods, and we send them depreciating pieces of green paper, and the Chinese are celebrating ten years of being cheated like that?
China is headed for a nasty collapse and the worst we’ll have to deal with from them is paying twenty bucks for a pack of batteries. We have a nasty neighbor to the south which is a far more immediate and dangerous threat.
I’m sorry but it is not tariffs in the first place which is behind a poor sales of Chrysler&Jeep in China.
There are an examples of Europe and Korea in this article as a nations with “proper” tariffs on car imports but does it helps Jeep there? No is the answer, and the sales are worse comparing to Chinese market.
In European public opinion American vehicles are associated with East Bloc quality. As for Korean cars they are beating domestic makers in America, how can they loose at home?
Yes after all, patriotic American conservatives can’t multi-task.
/s
Our debt to gdp ratio is insane, we’ve got a huge welfare class, multiple structural issues, and an incompetent government on both sides of the aisle. We need to focus on immediate threats right now. We can either try to save the world or save ourselves.
If we can become somewhat energy independent (at least enough to embargo or boycott certain oil producing countries without undue economic stress) it wil knock out a huge anvil hanging over our heads. We need to focus on internal and border issues and I’m certain the founding fathers would agree.
If we can tame Mexico and to a lesser degree South America we’ll be in a much better position to project against other threats.
Yep. We’re exploiting their cheap labor. It’s just too bad that we, mostly by choice, are buying cheap trash and not stuff that will last.
Blame America first huh? US autos are as good or better then anything Japan, Europe or China makes.
>>>>>>>>>Let me see if I have this straight - The Chinese send us valuable goods, and we send them depreciating pieces of green paper, and the Chinese are celebrating ten years of being cheated like that?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is another great game with no obvious winner.
China and US are both risking.
US industrial capabilities right now are well beyond needed to maintain consumption at cheap price, and if it is to continue this way I have no idea if it won’t be China who’ll set the rules for Walmart class who are a kind of heroin addicts to this cheap consumption.
On the other hand if a society is about to restrain it’s underclasses greed it is China which is in trouble as it’s grow based on an addiction from people I’m talking about.
Looking at “Occupy” crowd I’m not so sure which plan is more realistic.
There is another variant of Chinese advance to the North to grab land and natural resources from Russia. It is the way to make resources cheaper expanding Chinese middle class to stimulate internal consupmtion (and build their domestic Walmart class to reduce dependance from green paper).
Right now it is limited with Chinese miliraty capabilities which is still poor comparing to Russia and it’s allies (India&Vietnam).
>>>>>>>>Blame America first huh? US autos are as good or better then anything Japan, Europe or China makes.>>>>>>>
C’mon. I had Grand Cherokee, Olds Aurora and Chevy TB:)
Each one of them had more issues than ALL the Jap cars I had earlier and later. They aren’t so much fun to drive as Aurora but you are sure it brings you there you are going.
Chinese cars are a joke, sure (yet), modern European cars are as reliable as American or worse but you still have no choice in a luxury class.
If I’m not mistaken, trade with China is a VOLUNTARY activity by a large number of distinct individuals and corporations. Presumable they do this activity because it is profitable for them. If anyone feels that they are being cheated then they have the right to stop trading. I’m not sure how the article makes sense.
Exactly, one can’t blame China for acting in it’s interest. Blame people who made industries incompetive and buys Chinese here.
I owned Japanese and American cars for 30 years and I have never had to do anything other then routine maintenance. I like the little Japanese pickups better then the S10 I currently have, but the little S10 a 1999 is still running well so I’ll keep driving it. Sadly hurricane Ike killed my 91 Mustang but it was running well too until the salt water got it. So my experience is that American cars/trucks are just as good as Japanese cars/trucks. I have owned a few Italian sports cars Alfa’s and Fiats. They were fun to drive but keeping them running was almost a full time job.
I AGREE. That would be the unions, and the Democrats for running the costs of goods and services up to anti-competitive levels in the USA (along with a bunch of others) EPA, the burden of huge numbers of welfare recipients who take from the economy, but produce nothing except crime and more welfare recipients, etc.
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