US, China trade needs to be re-examined, Gordon Chang argues
The Trump administration’s move to ban cotton imports from a Chinese organization will have an 'enormous effect' on US apparel
The United States needs to “have a re-examination of all trade with China because we are enabling Beijing” to commit crimes through U.S. trade, investment and technology agreements, "The Coming Collapse of China" author Gordon Chang warned on Thursday.
The senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute made the comments on “Mornings with Maria” one day after the Trump administration banned cotton imports from a powerful Chinese quasi-military organization, citing the alleged forced labor of detained Uighur Muslims, Reuters reported. China reportedly claims the allegation is a fabrication.
On Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced its “Withhold Release Order” would ban cotton and cotton products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which is one of China’s largest producers.
The move by the Trump administration, which Chang called “a very good thing,” is the latest to strengthen the U.S. position against Beijing, making it more difficult for President-elect Joe Biden to ease U.S.-China tensions.
Host Maria Bartiromo asked Chang how the move impacts U.S. apparel.
Chang responded by saying that U.S. apparel will be affected “because something like [80%] or 90% of the cotton grown in China is grown in the Xinjiang region so this is going to have an enormous effect.”
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He went on to note that Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps “is a semi-military, semi-governmental organization that controls the cotton trade” and stressed that the move by the Trump administration “will have an impact.”
“Clearly we have to do more, but nonetheless this is an important start with stopping this because it’s not just detaining people in concentration camps, it’s genocidal policies, it’s the institutionalization of slavery, [the] institutionalization of rape,” he continued.
“These are atrocities that are crimes against humanity and the United States needs to do more because everybody else in the world needs to do more and they’ll do so only if they follow our lead.”
Chang said that he hopes Biden will look at the alleged crimes committed by China “in a much more rigorous light than apparently he is doing so.”
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Biden said he will not immediately act to remove the Phase 1 trade agreement, which President Trump signed with China in January.
The agreement between the world's two largest economies was fueled by decades of complaints that Beijing was manipulating its currency and stealing trade secrets from American firms.
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"I’m not going to make any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs," Biden reportedly said in an interview with a Times columnist. "I'm not going to prejudice my options.”
Under the trade agreement, China agreed to increase purchases of American products and services by at least $200 billion in 2020 and 2021. The deal also leaves in place 25% tariffs on a $250-billion group of Chinese industrial goods and components used by American manufacturers, as well as China's retaliatory tariffs on more than $100 billion in U.S. goods.
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Fox Business’ Jonathan Garber contributed to this report.