By ALESSANDRO OCTAVIANI*
It is a mistake to dismiss Peter Navarro, one of the rare economists to whom Trump gives some credibility, as “eccentric,” “a picture of an accident,” or “a deviation that will soon be fixed.”
Peter Navarro is currently director of Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, of the US Federal Government, and one of the rare economists to whom Donald Trump gives some credibility.[1]
During the Covid-19 crisis, his actions were even more notable. As reported on April 2, 2020, “Donald Trump has used (…) the Defense Production Act to help companies that make ventilators (…). (…) General Electric, Hill-Rom Holdings Inc, Medtronic Plc, Resmed Inc, Royal Philips NV and Vyaire Medical Inc.”[2]
This reinforcement for US national companies was carried out by Peter Navarro, who takes on the mission as a true “Economic Hawk”: “Regarding his ‘new authority over companies and their global supply chains’, he tells how he used it with 3M, which has factories in China: ‘The company was unwilling to report on the distribution of the masks it produces around the world and to provide them to the American people. It wants to act like a sovereign nation (…). And in this crisis there is only one country and only one president.”[3]
The press recently reported on Donald Trump's legal move to monopolize mineral exploration on the Moon and other celestial bodies for the United States: “Amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has already infected more than 360 Americans, US President Donald Trump has become embroiled in yet another controversy after issuing an executive order granting the country the right to exploit the Moon's resources, in violation of the agreement made regarding planet Earth's natural satellite. 'Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space in accordance with applicable law. Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons. (…)', says the executive order signed by Trump, which was rejected by Moscow.”[4]
This proposal also has Peter Navarro's hand, as can be read in Death by China (written in partnership with Greg Autry, to be a kind of action program for the North American capitalist State in the face of the Chinese danger and the threat to its global hegemony): among the concrete proposals to “confront the Chinese space challenge” is “claiming the Moon before China does”.[5]
For Peter Navarro, China is a threat to the United States, due to its industrial rise led by the Chinese state and its mercantilist, protectionist, imperialist, planned and aggressive policies.
Among the Chinese instruments are (i) the formation of a complex web of illegal export subsidies; (ii) a cleverly manipulated and brutally devalued currency; (iii) blatant counterfeiting, piracy, and outright theft of U.S. intellectual property; (iv) involvement in significant environmental degradation; (v) excessively lax occupational health and safety standards; (vi) illegal import tariffs and quotas; (vii) price-fixing and other predatory practices designed to drive foreign rivals out of key resource markets and then overcharge consumers through monopoly pricing; and (viii) preventing all international competitors from establishing their businesses on Chinese soil.[6]
The five parts of Death by China are named in militaristic terms, “preparing for war” (which would in fact come to pass a few years after its publication, when its formulations proved to be appropriate to Donald Trump’s conceptions): “'Buyer beware' on steroids","Weapons of job destruction","We will bury you, Chinese style","A hitchhiker's guide to the Chinese gulag"and "A survival guide and call to action".
Strategic measures to be modeled are listed, on a broad and urgent basis, several of which are currently in full swing: (i) avoiding Chinese products;[7] (ii) dismantle China’s weapons of job destruction;[8] (iii) set strict limits on Chinese espionage and cyber warfare;[9] (iv) confront and combat the growing Chinese military threat;[10] (v) combat Chinese global colonialism;[11] (vi) stop deaths in China by China;[12] (vii) address the Chinese space challenge.[13]
It is a mistake to consider Peter Navarro or Donald Trump as “eccentrics,” “pictures of an accident,” or “deviations that will soon be fixed.” They represent the deep-rooted expression of the American capitalist state and its legal discipline, always focused on the radical defense of its interests and the maintenance of its positions of power.
This is not about “exceptionalism”, but about “deep structure”, which echoes the famous modeling of “Super 301” – a US legal instrument to unilaterally punish countries that affect them commercially – and the actions of Congressman Richard Gephardt, who proposed the incidence of the diploma automatically “against countries that had excessive surpluses in their trade balances with the US. According to the project, two exceptions would be made: countries with balance of payments difficulties and cases in which action 301 could mean harm to US economic interests. (…) Overturned by a veto by President Reagan, on the grounds that it was 'too draconian to be effective', the so-called 'Gephardt amendment' gave way to Super 301, as its replacement device”.[14] It was replaced by obligation Automatic to sanction other countries for discretionary possibility to attack them…
* Alessandro Octaviani is a professor of economic law at the USP Law School.
Notes
[1] Cf., among others, ROGIN, Josh. “How Peter Navarro got his groove back”. The Washington Post. Published on 27/02/2018.
[2] Published on 2/04/2020.
[3] Published on 8/4/2020.
[4] Published on 7/4/2020. Available at https://revistaforum.com.br/global/trump-assina-decreto-para-dar-aos-eua-direito-de-exploracao-de-recursos-da-lua-como-agua-e-minerios/>
[5] NAVARRO, Peter; AUTRY, Greg. Death by China: Cronfronting the Dragon – A Global Call to Action. New Jersey: Pearson FT Press, 2011, p. 257-259.
[6] Ibid., p. 1-11.
[7] Ibidem, p. 234-239. Some of the specific propositions: not to buy products “Made in China”; tougher laws against China and Chinese products that harm Americans.
[8] Ibidem, p. 239-245. Some concrete proposals: send a secret emissary to China to warn it about the American intention to stigmatize it as a currency manipulator; stop the hijacking of research and development work; prohibit Chinese state-owned companies from buying private companies.
[9] Ibidem, p. 245-249. Some concrete proposals: penalize Chinese spies more seriously and aggressively; declare cyberattacks promoted by nation states as acts of war.
[10] Ibidem, p. 249-252. Examples of proposals: recognize that the US needs to get a greater return from the military-industrial complex, in view of the growing quantitative superiority of Chinese weaponry; avoid an arms race with China, which is in a much more favorable economic and military situation than the US.
[11] Ibidem, p. 252-255. Proposals: expand the US message around the world, as a way to gain access to markets and spread democratic values; replace the teaching of French and German in high schools with Mandarin, as a way to get to know the enemy.
[12] Ibidem, p. 255-257. Some concrete proposals: reinstituting human rights as an element of American foreign policy (the US should continue to exert pressure on China to respect human rights); making investments in companies and currencies of resource-rich countries, such as Australia and Brazil, which are expanding as much as China.
[13] Ibidem, p. 257-259. Concrete propositions, as mentioned above: claiming the Moon before China does; granting scholarships, student loans and educational grants/funding disproportionately directed to the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
[14] ARSLANIAN, Regis. The Recourse to Section 301 of the US Trade Law and the Enforcement of Its Provisions AgainstBrazil. Brasilia: Rio Branco Institute, 1994, p. 77.
the earth is round there is thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
CONTRIBUTE
