Talk to me about Romney's plans for China

[steronz]

From the debate thread, I’m stealing this quote to launch a new thread specifically on China:

@Omg_a_Black_Conservative

people have [possibly] … come to agree with Romney on some foreign issue (i.e., tough trade regulations against China).

I know Romney has been talking a lot about how tough he’ll be on China, but I was curious about what specifically he’s proposing. I found this cite:

Improve enforcement at the border to ensure that counterfeit goods are not brought into the US from China

Protect and pursue legal rights by having the Office of the United States Trade Representative pursue all significant claims of unfair trade practices, and have a more active role in encouraging private firms that have been victimized to raise claims both in U.S. courts and at the WTO.

Impose targeted tariffs or sanctions on Chinese firms or industries that rely on unfair practices or misappropriated American technology for their competitive advantage.

Have the Department of the Treasury in a Romney administration designate China a currency manipulator and have the Department of Commerce impose countervailing duties.

End US government procurement of Chinese goods until China agrees to the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement

These are not Mitt Romney’s exact words, but they’re a summary of his position scoured from speeches, proposals, and editorials. If anyone feels that this summary is in error or misrepresents Romney’s plan, please feel free to correct it before moving on.

The first two bullet points don’t strike a chord with me, since they essentially come down to “do a better job at enforcing existing laws.” My understanding of the volume of goods coming into this country and the meager number of inspectors and litigators dealing with counterfeit goods suggests that even doubling or tripling our efforts in those areas won’t mean much. Correct me if I’m wrong.

I’d like to know more about the last bullet point, since I know absolutely nothing about this WTO GPA that he wants China to sign. My guess is that China won’t sign it, and if Romney is true to his word then the US government will have to start paying astronomical prices for non-Chinese produced goods. The Republicans will then have a field day pointing out how inefficient the government is.

The remaining two bullets appear to be the core of Romney’s plan for China; officially declare them to be currency manipulators (is that a thing? an official declaration?) so we can impose duties on certain imports, and impose tariffs on specific industries where Romney feels that China is cheating.

Now, I grew up in the anti-protectionism 80s, when the Republican platform seemed to be anti-tariff. My formative years involved listening to debates about NAFTA (yay free trade!) and buying American for the sake of patriotism (boo free trade!).

IIRC, protectionist tariffs used to be a hallmark of the Republican Party, were abandoned in the 80s, and are now coming back in the form of pro-union proposals from the Democrats. But Romney appears to be espousing a protectionist strategy again. Are the platforms switching here?

I suppose a counterargument could be that Romney isn’t a true protectionist since he’s very careful to suggest limited tariffs on specific products and industries, not blanket tariffs. But that just sounds like crony capitalism to me, and I worry that the tariffs will be used to product the industries with the biggest lobbies and end up hurting American manufacturing in the long term.