“Consumers are paying the price” for President Trump’s tariffs, CNN claims. Millions will feel the pinch; many thousands will lose their jobs.
What CNN fails to mention is that millions of Americans already feel the pinch, and millions more have already lost their jobs. Why? Chinese consumers won’t pay the price for American exports: China steals up to $600 billion in American intellectual property (IP) every year.
Trump understands that tariffs are a powerful political tool that can — and should — be used to force China to pay for their crimes.
Most Americans have only a fuzzy understanding of what constitutes IP. Basically, IP are ideas; the products of human creativity such as art, branding or inventions that can be owned and legally protected by registering copyrights, trademarks or patents. Examples of IP include Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, the [National Economics Editorial’s] logo, and Tesla’s battery designs. Needless to say, IP is incredibly valuable — and incredibly easy to steal.
A 2017 report from the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property estimates that IP theft costs American individuals and businesses between $225 and $600 billion annually. Most of this loss is caused by the theft of American trade secrets ($540 billion), although software piracy ($18 billion) and counterfeiting ($41 billion) are likewise significant drains.
Doesn’t count the technology we transferred to them with off shoring.