WSJ - Top IMF Official Urges China to Heed Complaints on Unfair Trade

The Wall Street Journal runs this article quoting IMF official David Lipton as saying the some of the US complaints on unfair trade are legitimate and should be listened to.  While he suggests the US would be better served by handling their complaints in a less confrontational way, it is interesting that he points out at Davos that blindly dismissing the US view on this will "make it really hard to have a globalization that's durable."

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"A top International Monetary Fund official said some Trump administration complaints about unfair trade are valid, as he urged the rest of the world, in particular China, to take note.

David Lipton, the number two official at the IMF, said while there’s nothing inherently wrong with bilateral trade deficits, “unwarranted” deficits driven by “distortive” or “unfair” trade practices are a problem.

“The U.S. is making the complaint that there are such undesirable policies. As a complaint that deserves to be heard.” He noted that in both the U.S. and Europe, unhappiness with globalization has generated political upheaval. “The rest of the world, whose future really depends on openness and integration, had better be open to dealing with those concerns and complaints or else it will be really hard to have a globalization that’s durable.”

President Donald Trump’s confrontational approach to trade . . . . .   click here to read the full article in the WSJ
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My added comments: This comment by an official like David Lipton at the IMF will not go unnoticed. Even non financial analysts like Brit Hume were pointing it out on Twitter.