The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a U.S.-based technology group, issued a report Thursday (March 16) in which it said China’s mercantilist industrial policies put the entire global economy and trading system at risk and called for countries to increase the pressure on China to “reset” its policies, reported Reuters.
In the report, the ITIF said the past three U.S. administrations failed to engage China on the issue, and with China no longer dependent on the U.S. from an economic standpoint, Washington doesn’t have enough leverage to fight China on its own.
“America cannot respond with either flaccid appeasement or economic nationalism; it must assemble an international coalition that pressures China to stop rigging markets and start competing on fair terms,” said the ITIF, a Washington, D.C., think tank whose board includes representatives from companies such as Apple, Amazon, Cisco, Google and Intel, reported Reuters. The ITIF wants the U.S. to work with Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the European Union to come together to pressure China into what the group called a “fundamental economic policy reset.”
The group said a new approach is necessary because the movement to have more talks isn’t working. Instead, the group wants the countries to make it clear to the leaders of China that their harmful policies have repercussions. The group said President Trump’s trade policy should be centered on China and Mexico.
“Doing nothing due to the fear of retaliation should not be an option,” the group said. The report noted that ever since Donald Trump became the forty-fifth president of the U.S., China’s President, Xi Jinping, has been trying to make China appear as a country that supports free trade. Those assertions, however, have done little to relieve concerns by China’s trade partners, noted the report.
