US scholar says move will restrict job creation

THE United States government’s latest plan to impose huge tariffs on imports from China is like a palliative that will not solve the problem in the long run, according to an American scholar on economics and trade.

US President Donald Trump last Thursday signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to US$60 billion of imports from China and put curbs on Chinese investment in the United States.

Khairy Tourk, a professor with the Stuart School of Business of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, said that the Trump administration’s decision to restrict Chinese investment would mean restrictions on the creation of new jobs in the US.

“President Trump is calling for creating more jobs here, but this action (of imposing tariffs on Chinese imports) would work against his policy. So this is really a negative development,” Tourk told Xinhua news agency in a recent interview.

Tourk believes the main issue is not tariff but the natural technology transfer.

“Many people here claim China is stealing American technology so they want to put restrictions on Chinese investment, that is definitely wrong.”

On the other hand, Tourk said the US government believes that tariffs are a useful tool to bring balance in the US-China trade relationship, but that is not the main cause.

“We in the US are not saving enough, so we have to import resources and products from overseas; this is the truth,” he said.

Tourk holds that US policy-makers are lacking long-term vision with this move.

“The best way to improve the American economy is to increase productivity, but this takes a lot of time, so it is easy for politicians to take some palliative (actions), but it does not heal the real cause of the problem,” he explained.