When I look at policy I have a range of outcomes that satisfy recognizing that very few would choose the exact path I would. If you want to impose human rights sanctions on China, you would be imposing economic cost explicitly due to human rights violations. This matters 1/n
Because I hear more and more people saying that we need to take a stronger stand for human rights. I agree but the trade off is that it needs to be accompanied by clear economic cost. I prefer to look at the net economic cost imposed on China for a given list of reasons. 2/n
We need to accept that policy choices have costs and we need to recognize those costs. The primary choice about how to impose those costs is how they are distributed. (Tariff vs. VER cost accrual). As long as there is significant cost imposed for specified CCP policies 3/n
Then within a certain range of cost distributions, exactly how it is imposed is less important than the fact that it is being imposed. In short, Beijing needs to understand their policy choices will carry clear economic costs rather than intimidating us into doing nothing.
