By Kavaljit Singh | Letter (FT) | January 23, 2020
Martin Wolf rightly points out that the US-China trade deal is a partial and defective truce (January 22). The deal not only keeps in place the bulk of tariffs that were imposed on each other’s products during the trade war but repackages many commitments already made by China unilaterally or at international forums towards establishing a more market-based economy. Nevertheless, the trade deal raises two critical issues.
First, can China force its domestic companies (mostly privately owned) to…
By Biswajit Dhar | Briefing Paper # 32 | January 21, 2020
On March 22, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the “Presidential Memorandum Targeting China’s Economic Aggression” signalling the beginning of a trade war between the two largest economies. President Trump initiated this action in exercise of the powers granted to his administration under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Section 301 allows the Trade administration to initiate action against any country, which, in its view, violates intellectual property rights (IPRs) belonging to American firms. But,…
By Kavaljit Singh | Commentary | January 18, 2020
On January 15, the US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed a “phase one” trade agreement to de-escalate an 18-month trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. After months of tough negotiations and retaliatory trade actions, both countries agreed to proceed ahead with the “phase one” trade agreement. The core elements of the “phase one” trade agreement include intellectual property, technology transfer, agriculture, financial services, currency, and exchange rate policies. Besides, the deal establishes a…
