Further on the wind turbines issue, Stephen Stromberg suggests the big issue is cost. I know the Chinese supposedly produce everything in the world more cheaply than we do, and if we let them do so that's supposedly good for all (comparative advantage) but I purposely omitted that from my previous post because I think it's spurious.
I don't question that we probably can buy wind turbines from China for fewer bucks than from a domestic producer. But there are many reasons those turbines are cheaper, and only a few have to do with cost of production. The Chinese approach is different, i.e., "we will do what we need to do to sell these turbines, even sell at below cost, to establish a position in the market." Second, of course, is the immense related issue of China's artificial currency valuation, an issue that we're pressuring them to resolve but which in the meantime makes their prices look better than they are.
While I agree with Stromberg that we don't want a trade war, we DO want correction of unrealistic or artificial anomalies in international markets. Otherwise, the whole theory of comparative advantage falls apart. Comparative advantage may also need redefinition - it may be more than a matter of price, and perhaps ought to include some calculation of nonprice factors (jobs?) and even national security (can we afford to swap dependence on foreign oil for dependence on Chinese turbines?).
Ultimately, the hope should be to spur a demand that can create a strong domestic industry, capable of competing on cost and quality with the Chinese product -- the better mousetrap, the 2G, if not the 4G, of wind turbine technology. We can't expect to be there yet, but with some creative thinking it should be possible to get there.
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