A Great Boon for the West Coast
If the agreement holds and its principle elements are in fact observed, the trade agreement reached by the United States and China Sunday could prove a significant boost not only to the two nations’ bilateral political relationship but to the economies of both.
China is fast becoming a world economic player whose progress has been driven not by discredited communist economic theories but by newly developed entrepreneurship and growing export power from within China itself. The powerful new China serves not only markets throughout Asia but the United States as well--and especially our West Coast. California, more than any other state, benefits from vigorous trade relations with Asian nations. And so this new settlement of a festering trade dispute could do far more for the state’s economy, at least in the long run, than any number of other measures that tend to grab the headlines, such as relatively puny tax cuts and the like.
The bilateral agreement was reached only at the eleventh hour as both Beijing and Washington kept their hole cards covered until the bitter end. But when each side finally did turn over its hand, it could be suggested that China realized, wisely, that it had more to lose than to gain by continuing to deny United States negotiators satisfaction on the hotly disputed issue of intellectual property rights.
For its part, China has been reaping a considerable if wholly ill-gotten gain in the mass production of bootleg CDs and laser videodiscs. But now the Chinese government has not only signed a 22-page agreement but has already initiated enforcement action, ordering two of the most notorious pirating factories closed.
For its part, Washington couldn’t be more relieved about the deal, because in truth it would have been hard-pressed to turn its back on trade with China.
Indeed, even as U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor’s trade team was locking horns with its Chinese counterparts, U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary was visiting China with a delegation of 75 business executives. Maybe this seemingly contradictory presence was a manifestation of a lack of coordination by the Clinton Administration. Or maybe it was instead a deliberate effort to remind the Chinese of how much they have at stake. Indeed, perhaps the presence of the O’Leary team served to reassure China’s leaders of our true long-term interest in good bilateral relations, trade as well as political.
