Professor Roger Alford talked on Donald Trump's proposed trade war with China
Author | PAN Xuenan |
Pages | 743-744 |
FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA
VOL. 11 DECEMBER 2016 NO. 4
DOI 10.3868/s050-005-016-0043-0
ACADEMIC NEWS
PROFESSOR ROGER ALFORD TALKED ON DONALD TRUMP’S PROPOSED TRADE
WAR WITH CHINA
On the morning of May 24, Professor Roger Alford, from the Law School of
University of Notre Dame, was invited to give a talk at the Common Law Lecture Series
sponsored by the Centre for Common Law of Renmin Law School. His talk, entitled
“Donald Trump’s Proposed Trade War with China,” drew a broad spectrum of audience
ranging from trade law scholars, comparative law experts and political scientists.
A faculty member of Renmin University, Associate Professor GUO Rui hosted the
lecture, along with Professor DING Xiangshun and Professor HAN Liyu, who are
renowned scholars in trade law and comparative law. Professor Alford started with a
general introduction on the 2016 presidential election of the United States. He explained
that his main concern was the free trade policy, which has been embraced by the U.S. for
75 years, might be changed by this presidential election. On the Democratic side, Bernie
Sanders consistently opposes free trade agreements, and Republican candidate Donald
Trump fundamentally distrusts basic tenets of free trade. Influenced by the two
competitors, Hillary Clinton currently has no choice but to shift from an advocate for free
trade to an opponent, at least in front of the public. But as Professor Alford suggested,
there is a good Chese that Hillary will go back to follow her free trade instincts if she gets
elected.
Professor Alford placed great emphasis on the trade relationship between the United
States and China. Today, The U.S. imports $470 billion from China compared to $1.1
billion in 1980, and exports $110 billion to China compared to $3.8 billion in 1980. China
is the largest importer for the United States since 2007. As a result, although there are still
some issues to be resolved between the U.S. and China, these two countries are
undoubtedly much more closely related today and rely on each other more heavily with
regard to trade.
In this context, one can easily see that Trump’s idea of a trade war is ludicrous and
uninformed: The first problem is that from Trump’s perspective, trade is almost only
about jobs and trade deficits, instead of pursuing more fundamental purposes, including
reducing poverty, increasing standards of living or importing better products that benefit
the consumers thus eventually creating wealth. To use an example of basketball game for
illustration, Trump has paid too much attention to “free throws” without the awareness of
the importance of field goals and three pointers. In fact, free trade is like technological
development, reducing some jobs but creating new ones. As a whole, it creates wealth for
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