Free Republic

Protectionist moves in the midst of a worldwide economic contraction threaten to provoke massive retalitation. During the Cold War, a favorite acronym of Defense Department planners was MAD, which stood for mutually assured destruction. The logic of MAD was straight forward: if the Soviets fired their nuclear weapons, and we could launch ours before theirs hit us, thereby ensuring that we would all be destroyed, nobody would ever be crazy enough to launch their warheads. Interestingly, at this moment of profound economic crisis, the 'MAD logic' is once again applicable, though today it means something slightly different: mutually assured depression....

Exports to US are likely to face slow acceptance SHANGHAI -- China is expected to surpass the United States as the world's top automotive market by 2020, with output reaching 15 million units, a Chinese academic at a government think-tank said. China's motor vehicle output will likely grow 10 percent annually in coming years, said Zheng Xinli, vice director of the Chinese Communist Party's Policy Research Office, in a report published in the Economic Daily. Passenger cars may account for some 60 percent of the total production, he said. Last year, China's vehicle output grew 12.56 percent versus 2004 to...

Bush urges China to adopt market-based currency rate (Kyodo) _ President George W. Bush urged China on Wednesday to adopt a market-based currency rate and vowed to press major trading partners to open their markets as part of his efforts to reduce the huge U.S. trade deficit. "In terms of the trade deficit, it is important for us to make sure that countries treat their currencies in market fashion," Bush said in outlining his policy agenda for the second term at a press conference. "I've been working with China, in specific, on that issue." The Bush administration apparently wants China...

China hits U.S. tariffs on TVs New duties called breach of WTO principles; Discrimination also claimed; Trade dispute could mar premier's visit with Bush SHANGHAI, China - China angrily rejected U.S. anti-dumping measures on Chinese television imports, as an increasingly rancorous trade dispute threatened yesterday to mar a visit to Washington next month by China's premier. The U.S. measures announced Monday come amid clashes over textiles, steel and soybeans. Many in China believe that furniture may be the next export drawn into the dispute. With Premier Wen Jiabao due in Washington in less than two weeks to meet with President...