Podcast: ITIF’s Atkinson On Trade, Innovation, China In Trump’s Washington

A major shift is underway in Washington that is expected to have ramifications for global trade, innovation, and intellectual property enforcement, as Donald Trump steps into the United States presidency. IP-Watch caught up with Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation to get his view on what’s to come. Among the predictions: the Washington Consensus on trade gets turned on its head, enforcement will rise including at the multilateral level, the US will have many new ideas but iPhones will not be made in the US, and a much-needed “reset” of the US policy on China will bring greater mutual respect – if done right.

“Is Trump going to use a blunderbuss, or is he going to use a rifle?” Atkinson said of the president-elect’s approach to the US tech sector, where he has said he will demand assembly jobs be brought back home. “There’s lots of rifle shots that need to be taken, but they need to be taken with a lot of sensitivity.”

IP-Watch’s William New spoke with Atkinson after an ITIF event in Washington, DC on “Innovation Priorities for the New Administration,” held on 15 December.

For the engaging 15 minute podcast click here.

In the interview, Atkinson names key priorities for the tech sector under the new administration, counters the idea of making iPhones in America, and discusses how the need for a “China policy reset” can be managed appropriately. “That can go well or it can really badly,” he said.

Contrary to the Washington Consensus on trade, Atkinson says, “I believe we compete with other countries economically. I believe that one-sided open markets are damaging to … US economic well-being, and I believe that certain kinds of trade have hurt the US economy overall, not just individuals, particularly with how China has structured its policies. The Trump team is … much more aligned with that view than the Washington Consensus. And that is a major, major shift.”

But, he added, “I don’t think Trump is a Bernie Sanders protectionist, Bernie Sanders and that wing of the party. They do want a protected economy, much less competition, partly because they see that it hurts union organisation and other kinds of rights.”

“Trump is not a protectionist,” he said. “What he wants is to use the threat or reality of tariffs and other kinds of weapons or policies as a way to force other countries to become abiders by the rules, because I believe they feel the WTO has become a somewhat toothless body, partly because a lot of new problems or barriers or challenges have emerged after the WTO framework was put in place. WTO has a hard time catching up.”

 

 

Image Credits: ITIF