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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: shades who wrote (26478)	3/28/2005 11:27:00 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

thanks for the info, I may watch an hour if I can get up that early and have the "stomach" for it<g> In this US trade deficit/China bashing thing, we really do not hear anything from those mega companies' CEOs, who in fact are the key for this. I read that USCC suggests that the US should immediately put 25% of tariff on everything imported from China. Don't know it will become a reality or not. I hope it will, for everyone's sake<g>

To: shades who wrote (26478)	3/29/2005 1:58:55 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 116555

Gutierrez Pledges to `Turn Up Heat' on China Over Fake Goods March 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez tried to reassure business leaders today that he would increase pressure on China to stem counterfeiting, drawing on his own experience to label the rate of abuse as unsustainable. Gutierrez, who had been chief executive of Kellogg Co., said that just three months after Kellogg started selling corn flakes in China in 1996, counterfeit boxes were on sale at neighborhood shops. The Chinese court system made it difficult to get the fake goods pulled from the shelves, he said. ``America's businesses are counting on us to turn up the heat on countries where intellectual property violations occur,'' Gutierrez told a meeting of the Washington International Trade Association today. Gutierrez, who took the helm of the Commerce Department last month, is picking up on an issue that his predecessor, Donald Evans, warned could undermine the U.S.-China commercial relationship. That's put Gutierrez on a narrow path as he tries to sell Bush's agenda of opening trade while promising to clamp down on barriers to U.S. exports around the world. ``If trading partners violate the letter or spirit of our agreements, we will hold their feet to the fire,'' Gutierrez said. ``We must make sure our exporters get a fair shake, and that includes tariff and non-tariff barriers.'' China had a $162 billion trade surplus with the U.S. in 2004, the largest trade gap in history. U.S. companies complain that China's credit subsidies, currency peg and other government aid allow Chinese companies an unfair export advantage. Makers of drugs, movies, auto parts, razors, food and dozens of other products say the effect of China's trade policies is being exacerbated by businesses in China counterfeiting their merchandise, stealing the designs or technology of their products, and mislabeling cheap products as brand-name goods. Unsustainable Record, movie and software companies petitioned the U.S. government last month to haul China into consultations at the World Trade Organization over pirated merchandise they say sapped $2.5 billion in sales last year. Gutierrez today quoted industry statistics that say more than 90 percent of music, movies and software sold in China is pirated. ``Over the long haul this is just not sustainable,'' he said. In addition to piracy, Gutierrez also pressed for Congress to approve a pending free-trade agreement with five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic. That deal, known as Cafta, is about cutting barriers to U.S. exports, solidifying democracy in the region and sending a signal around the world that the U.S. wants to cut trade barriers globally, he said. ``All these other countries are waiting to see how Cafta goes,'' Gutierrez said. ``They are waiting to see how Congress and how our country feels about trade. That's why Cafta is of such symbolic value.'' bloomberg.com ===================================== They can crack down all they want. Just like those who use p2p to download movies would never buy them in the first place, the Chinese who buy fake products could never afford to buy the real stuff anyway. So the US cracking down is a win-win situation for all the Chinese companies<g>