American Trade Expert Defends President Obama

American trade expert Dr. Patrick Mendis from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) defended President Barack Obama’s import tariff on Chinese tires. He spoke to the “millionaire club” of 1000 business leaders and investors at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The United States has traditionally been a champion of free trade, he said during his keynote speech on the U.S.-China trade relations. The Obama administration’s decision on tariff China trade relations. The Obama administration’s decision on tariff is a temporary intervention to adjust the changing domestic labor markets, Dr. Mendis argued. “America will always uphold the principles of free trade and good relations with China,” Mendis told to his optimistic audience.

With his new book, TRade For Peace: How the DNA of America, Freemasonry, and Providence Created a New World Order with Nobody in Charge, Dr. Mendis looks back to America’s origin to see its future. He told that Chimerica (China and America) is intertwined as producer/consumer and creditor/debtor as a single nation. He also foresees a range of emerging Sino-centric economic relations, which he calls Chipan (China and Japan), Chirusia (China and Russia), Chindia (China and India), and Chifrica (China and Africa).

He further told the Chinese audience that America’s founding fathers used trade as a force that unites people despite of their religious, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. Dr. Mendis calls this American “Commercial Providence” now extends to the world.

Born in Sri Lanka, Dr. Mendis is a former American diplomat and a military professor in the NATO and Pacific Commands of the U.S. Armed Forces. Traveled and worked in more than 75 countries, Dr. Mendis later taught at the Chinese Northwestern University in Xian.

Dr. Mendis is no stranger to China. This was his second, month-long multi-city book tour in China this year. He lectured at various Chinese universities in Beijing, Chendu, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Shanghai. To honor his contributions to U.S.-China relations, the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies named him an honorary consulting professor of international relations at the Center for International Security Studies.

Dr. Mendis lives in the Washington, D.C., area.

- Asian Tribune -