Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

EDITORIAL: "The China Tariffs: Another too-clever-by-half protectionist gambit," Wall Street Journal, 2 April 2007, p. A16.

We're now saying China's economy is "evolved" to the point where tariffs make sense because we can track government influence in a way that we can't with true nonmarket economies.

True enough.

More true: this is a job for the WTO, where our complaints should be pursued, not in some unilateralist Congressional move.

Shame on the Dems for this one. And shame on Bush for repeating the same nonsensical thinking that led, as this editorial points out, to the pointless 2002 steel tariffs.

All we accomplish by such acts is to weaken the Doha Round talks.