Sunday , November 24 2024
Home / Mike Norman Economics / Dean Baker – Trade: It’s Still About Class, Not Country

Dean Baker – Trade: It’s Still About Class, Not Country

Summary:
Trump's new trade deals with China could turn out bad for American workers. Let’s start with the issue of forced technology transfer. Boeing is upset, because under the current rules, if they set up shop in China, they are going to have to partner with a company that is likely to be a competitor a few years down the road. Suppose tough-talking Trump forces China to accept rules that prohibit these mandated partnerships. Under his new deal, if Boeing wants to set up shop in China it just starts building a new facility, no partner needed. Standard economics would tell us that this will make Boeing and other US companies more likely to set up operations in China. This is obviously good from the standpoint of Boeing’s profits, but why exactly should US workers be happy about a change that

Topics:
Mike Norman considers the following as important:

This could be interesting, too:

Matias Vernengo writes Elon Musk (& Vivek Ramaswamy) on hardship, because he knows so much about it

Lars Pålsson Syll writes Klas Eklunds ‘Vår ekonomi’ — lärobok med stora brister

New Economics Foundation writes We need more than a tax on the super rich to deliver climate and economic justice

Robert Vienneau writes Profits Not Explained By Merit, Increased Risk, Increased Ability To Compete, Etc.

Trump's new trade deals with China could turn out bad for American workers.

Let’s start with the issue of forced technology transfer. Boeing is upset, because under the current rules, if they set up shop in China, they are going to have to partner with a company that is likely to be a competitor a few years down the road.
Suppose tough-talking Trump forces China to accept rules that prohibit these mandated partnerships. Under his new deal, if Boeing wants to set up shop in China it just starts building a new facility, no partner needed.
Standard economics would tell us that this will make Boeing and other US companies more likely to set up operations in China. This is obviously good from the standpoint of Boeing’s profits, but why exactly should US workers be happy about a change that will facilitate the outsourcing of US jobs?

CEPR

Mike Norman
Mike Norman is an economist and veteran trader whose career has spanned over 30 years on Wall Street. He is a former member and trader on the CME, NYMEX, COMEX and NYFE and he managed money for one of the largest hedge funds and ran a prop trading desk for Credit Suisse.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *