Publications: Robert D. Atkinson

Trade policy should focus first and foremost on defense, dual-use, and enabling sectors and largely ignore nonstrategic sectors.

The cool new movement among policy wonks won’t make a dent in ensuring America wins the existential techno-economic trade war we’re fighting with China.

Korea needs stronger domestic policies to shore up its advanced industries, such as restoring a robust investment tax credit and expanding its weak R&D tax credit. But without working with allies, Korea will not win versus China.

For 40 years, the U.S. government sent implicit and often explicit messages to American firms: Invest in China. Indulging in emotionally satisfying corporate blame points us toward the wrong solutions.

Pundits, analysts, advocates, and policymakers can now acknowledge that we have spent enough time in a counterproductive globalization rejection phase, and it’s time to abandon the road to autarky.

As the Trump administration has made clear, it is laser-focused on one number: the bilateral trade deficit between the United States and other nations. The Lee Jae Myung government should put in place a plan to reduce that deficit to zero, and then ask Trump to renegotiate for a fairer deal.

Section 337 was made into law to help address unfair foreign trade practices. It should be used vigorously to prevent the import of IP-infringing products from firms that systemically benefit from unfair government practices in non-market, non-rule-of-law economies such as China.

The United States must invest in the intellectual and institutional infrastructure needed to counter China’s aggressive techno-economic rise. NSF’s TIP Directorate should fund at least one university to establish a graduate program focused on industrial strategy and economic warfighting.

To beat China, the U.S. must revitalize many of the core principles in the 1950s business creed and foster a business community that embraces a national industrial strategy.

Engagement always comes at a price. The CCP is realist to the core, caring only about China. When it sees the U.S. government requesting cooperation, it sees leverage.