Mitt Romney would declare China a currency manipulator Source of picture: Wikimeda By John Richardson China’s practice of providing value-added tax (VAT) rebates for importers of raw materials who then re-export finished goods is the subject of a new US Department of Commerce ruling. And a leading international trade lawyer […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Foxconn And Chemicals
By John Richardson THE recent investigation by the US-based Fair Labor Association into Foxconn is a further indication of how China is transforming its economic model. It was found that Foxconn breached several Chinese regulations, including a maximum working week of 49 hours. The company is China’s biggest private-sector employer and manufactures 40 percent of […]
China And The WTO Ten Years On
By John Richardson TEN years ago this weekend China officially joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and so no doubt numerous speeches have been given about all the benefits to the global economy. Here is a somewhat more negative perspective: *As the diagram above seeks to illustrate, China hugely built-up its manufacturing industry to take advantage of Western […]
More Questionable Chinese Data Clouds The Picture
It seems as if Lex of the Financial Times is finally catching up with this blog by questioning the validity of some of the official data coming out of China. We take this as a compliment. In today’s column it talks about how the total for first-half Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth numbers for China’s 31 provinces […]