Adjunct Professor Matt Gold appeared on SiriusXM’s show Knowledge@Wharton where he discussed U.S. trade relations under the Trump administration.
President Trump has allowed [U.S. enforcement of our counterterrorism export laws] to get intermixed with the [China] trade war which [is about China]not fulfilling its obligations to the United States under the World Trade Organization agreements, and not giving U.S. goods, services and investment capital the kind of access to the Chinese market that they agreed to when they entered the WTO.
Those are really two different issues. It’s unfortunate that they’ve gotten mixed together [which]makes it harder for the United States on both sides.
I think it makes it harder for us to legitimately prosecute [our]counterterrorism laws with respect to the individuals who are giving U.S. technologies to Iran in violation of those laws, and other terror supporting states. And, on the other side, it makes it harder for the United States to negotiate for better compliance by the Chinese with their trade obligations to the United States because the Chinese see us as enforcing our criminal laws for the purpose of getting leverage in the trade negotiations.
Listen to the full podcast.