Earlier this year, President-Elect Obama addressed AAM’s Presidential Candidate Forum on Manufacturing in Pittsburgh. 

  Today, the Wall Street Journal noted his appearance at the AAM event and cited a quote of his from that particular day: ”trade with China will only be good for you if China itself plays by the rules.”  The Journal then suggested that China is finally beginning to play fair.  As proof, they cited negotiations last Thursday in which Beijing agreed to allow foreign news services to distribute business news to clients in China.

The President-elect is correct that American companies and American workers will benefit when China starts playing by the rules.  But the Journal is too quick in applauding China’s acquiescence on one small issue. 

In fact, one particular case of china actually honoring a commitment does not mean that they are not still cheating.  Illegal currency manipulation alone continues to give Chinese producers a huge, unfair advantage over American competitors. 

Until Beijing truly joins the world community in following the rules of accepted international trade, heavy scrutiny and pressure must continue to be focused on their ruling regime.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Holding China Accountable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.