User:Ssmit216/sandbox

= Article Evaluation = In the Wikipedia page, Artificial Intelligence it discusses the concepts, functions, and workings of machine intelligence. While reading this page, I found it to be very interesting and engaging. I appreciated that this page was neutral on the subject of AI. It mentioned that there were conflicting views on it, but was careful not to blatantly choose a side. It provides essential information in regard to AI, without directly engaging in any political controversies. Furthermore, all of the information included in the page is relevant to the topic of artificial intelligence. The explanations and included links are able to describe the concept in a way that someone with few prior knowledge could understand. I found this to be very important, as the topic is not commonly understood by the general public. The information is accurate, up to date, and includes several references to reinforce the information provided. While the majority of statements include references, I would like to point out that the bulk of them are from Wikipedia itself. With that being said, I feel that this page could benefit from references outside of Wikipedia to increase its credibility. Additionally, I feel that diagrams and visuals to demonstrate AI and how it technologically functions should be more present in this article to further illustrate the concept. Lastly, I feel that using examples of AI present in everyday life (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant) early on would help readers further grasp the differences between types of machine intelligence. Aside from the Main Page, I think it is interesting to see the Talk Page and view the conversations that are happening behind the scenes. This page is a part of several other WikiProjects, including Robotics, Technology, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science. The Talk Page also includes conversations between writers, asking for help researching, evaluating, or expanding content. Although this page is focused more on the technology behind AI, it still relates back to our Political Economy course, as machine learning continues to become a rich and booming industry. AI will have certain economic impacts on the market, and politicians will eventually step in to try and govern the newly developing industry.

Ssmit216 (talk) 02:05, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

Professor Comments
Nice job. In the future you want to sign your post with four tildes (just click on the icon below).

Cassell04 (talk) 00:47, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

= Rough Draft = On March 23rd, 2018 the United States of America filed a request for consultation to the World Trade Organization, in regard to concerns that the People's Republic of China was violating intellectual property rights. As a result of the findings of the US Trade Representative Section 301 Investigation into China, the United States claims that China enforces laws that allow them to legally avoid certain terms previously laid out by The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Specifically, the United States asserts that China primarily achieves this through the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China, Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of the Import and Export of Technologies, Law of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures, Regulations for the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures, and Contract Law of the People's Republic of China. In summary, the United States believes these referenced laws counteract intellectual property rights by forcing foreign companies to engage in joint ventures with Chinese companies, in which their new Chinese partners are granted access and permission to use, improve, or replicate their technologies. In addition, the United States argues that China is not compliant in recognizing legitimate patents and that their policies discriminate against foreign imported technology. Aside from the United States, several other nations have filed requests for consultation in regard to suspicions of Chinese violations, such as the European Union, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine.

As an immediate response, the United States announced that it would be increasing tariffs on solar cells and residential washers. As a result, China has filed counter requests for consultation against the United States, arguing that their claims lack substantive evidence, and therefore do not have the legal authority to respond based on World Trade Organization rules. As stated in Emerging Markets Finance & Trade, "China and the US bilateral disputes have become increasingly intensive. China criticizes the US of their export restrictions on hightechnology products, their unfair treatments of China’s market economy status, and unreasonable trade sanctions on China. Major areas of concern expressed by the US include large numbers of trade surplus, relatively ineffective record of enforcing intellectual property rights (IPR), discriminatory innovation policies, and mixed record on implementing WTO obligations." Zhang Qingli, who serves as Vice Chairman of the Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference said in a statement, "China never wants a trade war with anybody, not to mention the U.S., who has been a long term strategic partner, but we also do not fear such a war...The U.S. side has disregarded a consensus with China after multiple rounds of consultations, insisting on waging a trade war against China and continuing to escalate it." However, in a statement made by White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters she asserts, "The goal of United States trade actions is not to harm China's economy or start a trade war, but to get China to follow through on allowing fair competition and stop their unfair trade practices that have been hurting the American workers for years." Since filing for consultations with the WTO, neither parties have been able to agree on a solution. In the meantime, both the United States and China have responded by engaging in trade war activities, such as increasing tariffs on specific goods from each nation.

A simulation conducted by the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies' Research Center for International Trade and Economics and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics measured the potential implications of a trade war between the United States and China. By using a multi-country global general equilibrium model, the simulations produced numerical values that represent the effects of a US-China trade war. Overall, the results indicate that China "will be significantly hurt by tariff trade war in all indicators, including welfare, gross domestic product (GDP), manufacturing employment and trade." However, it is pointed out that although there will be definite impacts on China, the costs should be maintainable and will not severely damage the Chinese economy. In regard to the United States, the simulation produced results that described, "the US will gain on welfare, GDP and non-manufacturing production, but hurt employment and trade (both export and import)." Since each nation maintains a large economy, their actions not only effect each other but also the entire world. As a result of the trade war, the simulation predicts that the rest of the world will also see impacts within their own economies. For most large and developed nations, they will see positive benefits from a US-China trade war. As trade decreases between the United States and China, trade will presumably increase between other nations as a result. However, smaller nations will see significant negative impacts. For example, "World total welfare, GDP, manufacturing production and employment, export, import, and total trade" are expected to decrease since many of these nations are highly trade dependent.

Ssmit216 (talk) 03:00, 1 November 2018 (UTC) = Contributions Post Publishing =

2018 China-United States trade war
China and the United States are currently locked in an ongoing trade war as each country continues to dispute tariffs placed on goods traded between them. US President Donald Trump had promised in his campaign to fix China's "longtime abuse of the broken international system and unfair practices". The United States filed a request for consultation to the World Trade Organization, in regard to concerns that China was violating intellectual property rights. The U.S. administration is relying partly on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to prevent what it claims are unfair trade practices and theft of intellectual property. This gives the president the authority to unilaterally impose fines or other penalties on a trading partner if it is deemed to be unfairly harming U.S. business interests. Trump had already, in August 2017, opened a formal investigation into attacks on the intellectual property of the U.S. and its allies, which cost the U.S. alone an estimated $225–600 billion a year. As a result of the findings of the US Trade Representative Section 301 Investigation into China, the United States claims that China enforces laws that allow them to legally avoid certain terms previously laid out by The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

In summary, the United States believes that, first, certain Chinese laws counteract intellectual property rights by forcing foreign companies to engage in joint ventures with Chinese companies, in which their new Chinese partners are granted access and permission to use, improve, or replicate their technologies. Secondly, the United States argues that China is not compliant in recognizing legitimate patents and that their policies discriminate against foreign imported technology. In addition, China has instituted an array of non-tariff barriers meant that some critical sectors of the Chinese economy remained relatively insulated from international competition.

Aside from the United States, several other nations and supranational bodies have filed requests for consultation in regard to suspicions of Chinese violations, such as the European Union, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine.

United States reacts
The Trump administration said the tariffs were necessary to protect intellectual property of U.S. businesses, and to help reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China. As a result, China has filed counter requests for consultation against the United States, arguing that their claims lack substantive evidence, and therefore do not have the legal authority to respond based on World Trade Organization rules. As stated in Emerging Markets Finance & Trade, "China and the US bilate ral disputes have become increasingly intensive. China criticizes the US of their export restrictions on hightechnology products, their unfair treatments of China’s market economy status, and unreasonable trade sanctions on China. Major areas of concern expressed by the US include large numbers of trade surplus, relatively ineffective record of enforcing intellectual property rights (IPR), discriminatory innovation policies, and mixed record on implementing WTO obligations." Zhang Qingli, who serves as Vice Chairman of the Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference said in a statement, "China never wants a trade war with anybody, not to mention the U.S., who has been a long term strategic partner, but we also do not fear such a war...The U.S. side has disregarded a consensus with China after multiple rounds of consultations, insisting on waging a trade war against China and continuing to escalate it." However, in a statement made by White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters she asserts, "The goal of United States trade actions is not to harm China's economy or start a trade war, but to get China to follow through on allowing fair competition and stop their unfair trade practices that have been hurting the American workers for years." Since filing for consultations with the WTO, neither parties have been able to agree on a solution. In the meantime, both the United States and China have responded by continuing to engage in trade war activities.

Forced technology transfer from US companies to Chinese state owned entities
In many cases, technology transfers are effectively required by China’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regime, which closes off important sectors of the economy to foreign firms. In order to gain access to these sectors, China forces foreign firms to enter into joint ventures with Chinese entities they do not have any connection to.

Timeline of Reaction:
2018:


 * December 2018, Trump and Xi Jinping agree to delay increases in tariffs for 90 days, allowing time for further negotiation.

US-China Trade
As of 2016, the total amount of U.S. imports equaled $2,248,209 million dollars whereas the total imports of China stood at $1,587,921 million dollars. In regard to exports, U.S. exports were $1,450,457 million dollars whereas China exports were $2,097,637 million dollars. China has had a continuous trade surplus with the United States, amounting to $275.81 billion in 2017. Of the trade surplus, 68% of it is derived from the United States alone. While China experienced a trade surplus, the United States was faced with a trade deficit; therefore persuading the Trump Administration to take action.

Tariff announcements
On December 1, 2018 increases in tariffs were postponed. A statement was released by the White House stating that both parties will "immediately begin negotiations on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft."

Temporary reprieve
The threatened tariff increase on the additional $200 billion in Chinese goods by the US, and the retaliatory increase in tariffs on American goods, was postponed in early December 2018. During a dinner at the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to delay their planned increases in tariffs for 90 days, starting on December 1st, to allow time for the two countries to negotiation thei trade disputes. According to the Trump Administration, "If at the end of [90 days], the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the 10 percent tariffs will be raised to 25 percent."

Markets
On December 4, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined a near 600 points, to which some argue is in part due to the trade war. Brent Schutte, the Chief Investment Strategist at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, stated, “The market is reassessing if anything tangible happened at the Trump-Xi dinner. The market wants news of concrete steps to lower tariffs, not just pronouncements." Schutte claims that the trade war "underscores growth concerns" for investors, as they remain skeptical whether or not a trade resolution will be reached. In doing so, the uncertainty increases the risk of investment and disincentives participation in certain markets. Despite this, on December 4 New York Fed President John Williams said that he believes the US economy will stay strong in 2019. Williams expects that increases in the interest rates will be necessary to maintain the economy. He stated, “Given this outlook of strong growth, strong labor market and inflation near our goal and taking account all the various risks around the outlook, I do expect further gradual increases in interest rates will best sponsor a sustained economic expansion."

Potential Impact
A simulation conducted by the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies' Research Center for International Trade and Economics and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics measured the potential implications of a trade war between the United States and China. By using a multi-country global general equilibrium model, the simulations produced numerical values that represent the effects of a US-China trade war. Overall, the results indicate that China "will be significantly hurt by tariff trade war in all indicators, including welfare, gross domestic product (GDP), manufacturing employment and trade." However, it is pointed out that although there will be definite impacts on China, the costs should be maintainable and will not severely damage the Chinese economy. In regard to the United States, the simulation produced results that described, "the US will gain on welfare, GDP and non-manufacturing production, but hurt employment and trade (both export and import)." Since each nation maintains a large economy, their actions not only effect each other but also the entire world. As a result of the trade war, the simulation predicts that the rest of the world will also see impacts within their own economies. For most large and developed nations, they will see positive benefits from a US-China trade war. As trade decreases between the United States and China, trade will presumably increase between other nations as a result. However, smaller nations will see significant negative impacts. For example, "World total welfare, GDP, manufacturing production and employment, export, import, and total trade" are expected to decrease since many of these nations are highly trade dependent.

Ssmit216 (talk) 01:17, 5 December 2018 (UTC)