Insights from Washington Series

This event is part of AmCham’s new “Insights from Washington” series, which enables our members to engage with key policymakers and influencers involved with U.S. trade issues.

China and the United States have been top trading partners for many years, but the beginning of 2018 saw trade frictions between the two countries begin to seriously heat up. When the Trump Administration announced $34 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods in early July — quickly followed by immediate retaliation by the Chinese — the trade war was formally engaged. Now in its seventh month, the trade spat has grown to encompass the many complaints that China’s trading partners have about doing business on the mainland, including what is seen by many as China’s failure to live up to its WTO commitments, lack of IPR protections, non-tariff barriers to trade and a general feeling that China makes many unkept promises to open up its economy to foreign companies. What does all this mean for American companies doing business in China, and what should you be doing now to adjust?

About the Speaker

Clyde Prestowitz

Founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington, DC

Professional Experiences:
Clyde Prestowitz is a New York Times best-selling author who writes about Asia, globalization, trade, US foreign policy and economics, and is also a regular contributor to leading publications such as the Washington Post, Fortune, the New York Times and Foreign Affairs. He is also the founder and president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington, DC, was Vice-chairman of President Clinton’s Commission on Trade and Investment in the Asia-Pacific Region, member of the Board of Directors of the Export Import Bank and Counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration. Mr. Prestowitz played key roles in achieving congressional passage of NAFTA and in shaping the final content of the Uruguay Round, as well as providing the intellectual basis for current U.S. trade policies toward Japan, China, and Korea. Before joining the Commerce Department, he was a senior businessman in the United States, Europe, Japan, and throughout Asia and Latin America.

Education:
B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College; an M.A. in East-West Policies and Economics from the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii; and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business. He also studied at Keio University in Tokyo.