US business group must drop false accusations against China
▶ World has ‘ moral duty’ as rich nations hoard vital jabs
The US Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday issued a report addressing the China- US economic relationship, warning hundreds of billions of dollars in potential losses for US businesses if a decoupling were to take place but also repeating accusations of China’s “unfair trade and regulatory practices” and calling for broader and multilateral policies to address the “China challenge.”
Over the past four years, the US, under former President Donald Trump, waged a trade war against China based on the same exact grievances the chamber is citing in the new report. US businesses have and continue to bear the brunt of the costly battle and they are fully aware of it, as indicated in the analysis, conducted jointly with the consultancy Rhodium Group.
The report said that if
US foreign direct investment into China were reduced by half, the US would suffer a one- time
GDP loss of up to $ 500 billion, and an annual
GDP loss of $ 190 billion could occur if 25 percent tariffs are placed on all two- way trade. Additionally, the US could lose $ 30 billion annually if Chinese students and tourists were stopped completely.
Those figures should be no surprise to anyone who has been following the trade war over the past several years, particularly business both in China and the US. Serious policymakers, for whom the analysis is intended for, should also have been aware of those potential damages. US President Joe Biden, while running for the presidency, criticized Trump’s approach and spoke of the damage it could inflict on the US.
It goes without saying that data analysis is important for policymaking, as the chamber rightly pointed in the report. However, addressing the fundamental issue to avoid those hundreds of billions of dollars in losses in a rational and effective way requires a step further – the actual root cause of those issues behind the damaging policies under Trump.
For years, US business groups have been airing the same grievances over market conditions in China with accusations of unfair trade practices, all while many of them have enjoyed massive successes in the market. If there were specific unfair Chinese policies and actions targeting a specific US company, there are ways for them to address, in China or at the WTO.
But instead, US business groups including the US Chamber have been pushing the US government to crack down on China based on these broad, vague charges. Many in China believe that it was US business groups that were behind Trump’s trade war, in their relentless pursuit of profits.
Now, with Trump out and Biden in the White House, there is a real opportunity for the world’s two largest economies to drop the mutually destructive trade war and seek ways to work together. Unfortunately, the US Chamber is still advocating ways to clamp down on China based on the same grievances, though they are now pushing for a “plurilateral approach” that involves “our international partners” to address what it repeatedly called “China challenge.”
Indeed, the US Chamber did not advocate crackdowns on Chinese firms, but its constant and baseless accusations contribute to this increasingly out- of- control hostility to China and its businesses.
Chinese leaders have repeatedly vowed to push forward reform and welcome businesses around the world to conduct businesses in China. As far as the US Chamber is concerned, here is a word of wisdom from Confucius: Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire!
The United Nations ( UN) on Wednesday led calls for a coordinated global effort to vaccinate against COVID- 19, warning that gaping inequities in initial efforts put the whole planet at risk.
Foreign ministers met virtually for a first- ever UN Security Council session on vaccinations called by current chair Britain, which said the world had a “moral duty” to act together against the pandemic that has killed more than 2.4 million people.
Secretary- General Antonio Guterres voiced alarm that just 10 nations have administered 75 percent of doses so far – and 130 countries have had none at all.
“The world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities,” Guterres said.
He said the Group of 20 major economies was in the best position to set up a task force on financing and implementation of global vaccinations and offered full support of the UN.
“If the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire in the Global South, it will mutate again and again. New variants could become more transmissible, more deadly and, potentially, threaten the effectiveness of current vaccines and diagnostics,” Guterres said.
“This can prolong the pandemic significantly, enabling the virus to come back to plague the Global North.”
Henrietta Fore, head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF, said: “The only way out of this pandemic for any of us is to ensure vaccinations are available for all of us.”
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard denounced the “injustice” of what he called a “deepening gap” as wealthy countries “monopolize the vaccines.”
There is already a plan to help developing nations – Covax is an initiative funded by donors and governments that aims to procure 2 billion vaccine doses in 2021 with options for a further billion.
Covax will soon be able to start delivery of vaccines after the World Health Organization approved the shot developed by AstraZeneca, on which the initiative is almost entirely reliant in its first wave.
But aid groups say that many people still risk being left out due to a shortfall in Covax funding.
Britain, one of the largest contributors to Covax with a commitment of £ 548 million ($ 760 million), reiterated a UN call for temporary cease- fires to allow vaccinations, estimating that more than 160 million people were at risk in conflict zones.
Gunmen from a suspected criminal gang stormed a school in central Nigeria on Wednesday, killing one student and kidnapping dozens of other pupils, teachers and relatives, the local government said, in the country’s latest mass abduction.
President Muhammadu Buhari ordered security forces to coordinate a rescue operation, his office said, after gunmen in military uniforms raided the Government Science College in the town of Kagara in Niger state.
Details about the kidnapping were still emerging and a new tally came after initial reports from a government official and a security source that hundreds of students were snatched from the school, where they were staying in dormitories.
“They kidnapped 42 people from the school. They took away 27 students, along with three teachers. One student was killed. They also kidnapped 12 family members of the teachers,” Muhammad Sani Idris, spokesman for Niger state’s government, told AFP by phone.
He said 650 students had been in the school when it was attacked at 2 am ( 0100 GMT) on Wednesday.
Heavily armed gangs known locally as “bandits” in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and pillaging.
Buhari condemned the abduction and ordered security forces to coordinate an operation to rescue the students.
The latest mass abduction comes only two months after 300 students were kidnapped from a school in Kankara in nearby Katsina, Buhari’s home state, while the president was visiting the region. The boys were later released after negotiations with government officials.
Serious pollution caused around 160,000 premature deaths in the world’s five most populous cities in 2020, even as air quality improved in some places due to coronavirus lockdowns, an environmental group said Thursday.
The worst- affected was New Delhi, the most polluted capital on Earth, where around 54,000 deaths are estimated to have occurred due to hazardous PM2.5 airborne particles, according to a report from Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
In Tokyo, the figure was 40,000 with the rest spread across Shanghai, Sao Paulo and Mexico City, according to the report, which looked at the impact of microscopic PM2.5 matter produced by burning fossil fuels.
“When governments choose coal, oil and gas over clean energy, it’s our health that pays the price,” said Avinash Chanchal, climate campaigner at Greenpeace India.
PM2.5 particles are considered the most harmful for health. They damage the heart and lungs, and increase the chances of severe asthma attacks.
Some studies have linked PM2.5 exposure to a higher risk of dying from COVID- 19.
The report used an online tool that estimates the impacts of PM2.5 by taking air quality data from monitoring site IQAir and combining it with scientific risk models, as well as population and health data.
The tool is a collaboration between Greenpeace, IQAir, and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Despite the high numbers of deaths, coronavirus lockdowns imposed across the world – that took traffic off the streets and shut down polluting industries – did temporarily clear the skies above big cities.
Delhi, for instance, underwent a dramatic transformation for a period in 2020 when curbs were imposed, with residents reveling in azure skies and clean air.
Scientists say that massive drops in some pollutants due to lockdowns are bound to have prevented deaths.
Nevertheless, Greenpeace urged governments to put investment in renewable energy at the heart of plans to recover from the pandemic- triggered economic downturn.