Abstract:
Just two countries, China and the US comprise 40% of world GDP and 23% of its population, making their bilateral commercial relationship by far the most important in the world, and the strain between them especially unfortunate. Differing perspectives about intellectual property, the role of government, and technology transfer should not obscure the fact that both nations have benefited substantially from their trade and FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) flows. Unfortunately, psychosomatic defensiveness in the US and a more muscular tone in China, still smarting from grievances that date back 178 years, have dominated their political dialogue. But the basic underpinnings of cooperation and mutual benefit remain valid.
Much of my talk will be focused on estimates of the two nations’ mutual dependence, in terms of the numbers of jobs and money flows involved in the US-China relationship. But I will also address related issues such as the competitiveness of manufacturing, the value of the RMB (Yuan), and the dangers of overplaying the nationalism and protectionism cards.
About the Speaker:
Farok J. Contractor is “Distinguished Professor of Management and Global Business” at Rutgers Business School, a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), and author of ten books and over 150 scholarly articles. He holds a Ph.D. (Managerial Science and Applied Economics) and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, as well as two engineering degrees M.S. (Michigan), and B.S.E. (Bombay). He is on the Board of the Academy of International Business, a worldwide association of 3,500 academics and consultants as President-Elect (2020 – 2021) and President (2021 – 2022).
Farok Contractor’s research focuses on key issues in International Business, such as corporate alliances, emerging markets, outsourcing and offshoring, valuation of intangible assets, the technology transfer process, licensing, and foreign direct investment. His papers and books have been cited more than 12,000 times, and he is among the top-ranked contributors of scholarly papers in the field. Farok has chaired or been on the supervisory committees of 19 doctoral dissertations. He is the recipient of a Silver Medal for the number of contributions to Journal of International Business Studies (one ot the top-5 management journals) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Academy of Management.