International Law

Buy Local

By Stan

This will be short and sweet, or at least short. (Note that all of my stuff today relates in some way to the global meltdown, so if you are prone to depression, take a pass on China Hearsay today and tune in again tomorrow for the exciting wrap-up of my series on the WTO IP dispute.)

China has been on a rhetorical rant over the past couple of weeks against "Buy Local" campaigns. These are policies adopted by a country that mandate a certain amount of domestic products purchased on a given project or in connection with a certain expenditure item. Currently, these policies are being discussed within the context of large fiscal stimulus plans.

In the U.S., the "Buy American" policy is still being debated, although I think it was yanked out of the bill that just passed Congress. Obama came out against it — score one for the new guy. (No surprise here, I am opposed to Buy Local provisions.)

Here’s my problem. If you want to speak out against the policy, don’t be so transparent about it. China is the biggest exporter in history, so its biases here are just too out in front for Beijing to be crowing about free trade. Just looks too self-interested for the criticism to be masquerading as ideological (which it certainly isn’t).

Suggestion: put a coalition of countries together and let one of them, on behalf of the group, issue free trade statements. Protectionists in the U.S. and EU don’t want to hear anyone from China lecturing them about free trade these days.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on February 16, 2009 (boomark / email).