Trade Wars?

Available for over a year

A war of words has flared up between China and the United States over whether the level of the Chinese currency has been artificially helping Chinese exports. A senior Chinese official said China would not bow to pressure to re-value its currency. This has reinforced fears of damaging trade wars between China and Western countries. One scenario suggests that the appetite of consumers worldwide is smaller after the financial crisis, so the temptation for Western nations is to slap import taxes on Chinese goods, to make their own companies more competitive. Lesley Curwen talks to Michael Pettis, a former American investment banker who is a Professor at Peking University and an associate with the Carnegie Endowment. Plus after heightened volatility in tea prices, Henrietta Lovell, the founder of the Rare Tea Company, has been to look at a tea plantation in Malawi which is trying to go upmarket. And Paul Eisenstein of the DetroitBureau.com reports on the increasing woes of Toyota.