Interview: Protecting intellectual property rights
>> u.s. commerce secretary is in beijing to product chinese leaders into taking a tougher stance in the fight against counterfeiters and software pirates. he says china’s lowering of 9 threshold for putting counterfeiters in jail wasn’t enough to please u.s. officials. he says they must do more in protecting intellectual property rights.
>> i tell you, the most important thing for them to stay focused on is enforcement of the laws. and that means putting people in jail. we’re pleased that they have lowered the threshold for the criminalization of counterfeiting and piracy and i think we believe that’s a very constructive step. we’d like to have seen them go somewhat further than they went. what i really believe is that what they need to do is be putting more people in jail.
>> i hear that you don’t believe that the recent textile support tariff they say they’ll tack on is high enough. can you tell us how high should they be and can u.s. textile makers survive after all the tariffs are lifted?
>> listen, the textile industry in the united states has been downsized considerably over the last several decades. it has been downsized in terms of employment in particular. and the export tax or tariff that china put on textiles and apparel recently was interesting but it wasn’t particularly impressive. it was a nominal amount. and i would say that the textile industry in america is competitive in the world and certain specific areas of the textile economy or the textile sector of the global economy. the industry is adjusting, it’s transforming itself. it is forming partnerships around the world. it is developing joint ventures around the world and look, the american workers, american companies can compete with anybody in the world. and we’ll. it’s an economy that will continue to gravitate toward those areas of the economy where they’re most competitive.
>> do you think china should up the textile tariffs―export tariff as soon as >> i think they need to look very carefully at their own policies with respect to subsidies, with respect to non-performing loans, with respect to other structural issues within their economy that create the impression of an unlevel playing field. we want china to stay focused on structural issues that make sure that we can look our workers and companies in the eye and tell them we’re on a level plague field with other companies in the world.
>> why do you think china support of a state source risk of backlash. you said this recently. doesn’t the u.s. give its industries preferential treatment as well?
>> no. what i said is any time that you see they’re not moving forward on structural kinds of reforms, eliminating or reducing non- performing loans in their banking system or sponsoring state-owned enterprises, what it means is that american workers and american companies are being asked to compete against subsidized companies in other countries. and, you know, that needs to change. otherwise you can see how people might consider taking steps to level the playing field.
>> also, this is a key issue for the u.s.. china says it plans to pull the plug on the ramimbi as soon as the financial sector is reformed. but that may take some time. why isn’t this answer good enough for the u.s.?
>> well, we think that economies function best in the world when there is free trade, free flow of capital and market forces determine exchange rates. and we just think it’s important for all countries, all economies in the world to create an environment for long-term economic growth. and those are the kinds of policies that lead to long-term economic growth. and so we have been encouraging secretary snow has been encouraging china to continue to express how important it is to move toward a flexible exchange rate.
>> u.s. commerce secretary donald evans in beijing. hong kong’s billionaire plans to sell a stake in canadian imperial bank of commerce and give the proceeds to charity. more in the second hour of this program. we are seeing a bit of the philanthropist in our landlord.
>> that’s right. we only refer to him as hong kong’s billionaire tycoon. you might want to add another label and call him philanthropist. he will tell 5% stake in cibc and donating the proceeds to charity. it is worth 1.2 billion canadian. the money from the stock sale will be donated to a charity in toronto. no date set for the sale. he has been pleased to be an investor in this stock. judging by the one-year chart, can you understand why.
>> we’re being good corporate citizens, too. we’re paying him rent.
>> we are.
>> one of his companies is in the midst of selling part of its stake to china netcom. what are the details there?
>> china network communications. his second son runs the company. it’s been a bit of stop and go. we weren’t sure’ deal would go ahead. netcom said you may or may not want to bank on this because there’s no guarantee of a deal. richard lee held a press conference yesterday. the press conference was partly a call to dispel rumors that richard lee disappeared in the aftermath of the tsunami. there was media noise in hong kong that he was in maldese at the time. he was on a plane to india to talk about the netcom sale when the disaster struck. network communication sincere
在线播报
Listen Interview: Currency
>> the dollar drops by the most in five weeks against the euro. also fell versus the yen after the u.s. trade deficit expanded to a record in november. declines for the u.s. currency accelerated after u.s. treasury secretary john snow urged japan and europe to boost their economics to help shrink the trade deficit. traders say that’s sign that the u.s. may resist pressure to support its currency. for more on currency, we are going to san francisco to talk to a foreign exchange strategist of barclays global investors which manages more than $1 trillion. good to see you. how much pressure is there for the dollar to fall further?
>> yeah, there definitely is pressure. look that the trade deficit. an absolute monster coming out in the last day. we really have to take a step back and realize there are some actual positive factors for the dollar. one of which is we do expect interest rates to increase which is positive for the u.s. dollar. additionally the bush administration is enacting some budgetary reform that may be credible going forward. so although the marketplace is excited about the dollar dropping and potentially to keep dropping because of the massive trade deficit, there are some mitigating factors here. that’s why we have maintained a small short position in the dollar. it may not be as short as what other folks are doing in the marketplace.
>> given those mitigating factors, when are you seeing investors buying dollars on expectations that interest rates will increase in the u.s.?
>> yeah, well certainly there is this expectation of interest rate increases. the federal reserve has been very clear they expect to raise interest rates on a moderating basis going forward. there is a question, though, in light of that will foreign investors be able to fund this current account deficit we have? there will be data releases in the next week that should be helpful in understanding that. overall i would say that we have competing factors here and the net net is it will be somewhat negative for the dollar in the near term.
>> so for the whole quarter where do you see the dollar trading versus the euro and yen?
>> well, certainly for the quarter coming up we see some degradation in the dollar versus the euro and yen. although i would say that it’s somewhat mitigated because you get a situation here where some of the economies like the japanese yen and european situation, their growth is somewhat mitigated. they have had downgrades in the g.d.p. estimates for those regions. that is concerning. there is a limit of how far the dollar can drop relative to the currencies.
>> the u.s. is pressing japan and europe to boost their economies to help shrink the trade gap and the e.c.b. is calling for asian currencies to strengthen. how do you see asian central banks and governments reacting to international pressure?
>> this is the sort of regional fight that has been going on. there is a question of how are the asian banks going to react to this. one thing is for sure. the asian banks have been credible in intervention activities with particular focus on japan. when japan says they’re going to intervene, they do and do it in a big way. there is really this risk of intervention in japan and primarily to support their export industries. obviously they want to weaken the japanese yen to support the exports of that country. interestingly enough, the export industries have done reasonably well in recent times. it could be that they lay off the intervention for the moment. but certainly the market is fearing that and that is why typically market makers right now are positioning longer the euro relative to the dollar than they would long the japanese yen relative to the dollar because intervention risk is much higher in japan than in european regions.
>> what sort of dollar trades would you recommend before the g -7 finance ministers meeting in london?
>> well, certainly right now we maintain a long position in the euro, although the growth has been somewhat mitigated. it is a strong momentum, positive momentum for the currency. we maintain a long position on the australian dollar versus the u.s. dollar. that’s primarily because it maintain as very large interest rate differential with the u.s. right now the australians have a large and robust interest rate differential with the u.s. that. may be mitigated in the medium term but now is fairly robust and is attractive to us.
>> in fact, the australian dollar rallied after the u.s. trade deficit unexpectedly widened. what is your outlook for the local dollar given concerns over the u.s. trade deficit?
>> my outlook for the australian dollar, is that it?
>> that’s right.
>> right now the australian dollar is supported by a variety of factors. obviously the interest rate as i mentioned earlier. but also the commodity prices have been supported for that export oriented country. the interesting thing about the australian dollar right now is that their current account deficit is actually larger on percentage of g.d.p. basis than in the u.s. that. is extraordinary and that could weigh heavily. the market is not focused on that. they focus on the interest rate differential and the fact that
