China-U.S. Protectionism Risks ‘Wounds,’ Schwab Says

(Business Week – Frederik Balfour, Bloomberg)

China and the U.S. may damage their own economies as a result of rising protectionism, said Susan Schwab, a former United States Trade Representative. “There has been a tangible uptick in the scope of tensions,” Schwab said during a speech to members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. “Both China and the U.S. are at much greater risk of self-inflicted wounds than any damage of what the other country could do.”

Schwab said China’s censorship of Internet companies such as Google Inc. and its unwillingness to allow its currency to appreciate are causing unprecedented concern in the U.S. Schwab joined law firm Mayer Brown LLP in Washington as an adviser earlier this month. “Holding down the renminbi risks inflation in China and has caused a lot of trading partners to be very unhappy,” she said, using another term for the yuan. She called Washington’s buy-American polices “stupid and self-defeating.” Read more here.