American business has become an unflattering caricature of itself in the fight over renewed most-favored-nation trade status for the People’s Republic of China. “China MFN is not some ideological debate,” National Retail Federation president Tracy Mullin announced at a news conference June 16. “It does have some real-life impact on American families.”
Which families? Poor and middle-income families, of course. And what kind of impact? Well, the “Tickle-Me Elmo” doll — that favorite licensed figurine of public television’s Sesame Street — would rise in price to an unaffordable 50 bucks if China’s preferential import tariffs were repealed. So says a study by something called “The Trade Partnership.”
Of course, Elmo could be manufactured someplace other than China. That would keep the price down, you’d think. Truth be told, though, we hope that obvious solution doesn’t occur to the National Retail Federation. Why shouldn’t Elmo cost a bundle? It would serve to remind American moms and dads that their children are playing with toys made by political prisoners in the Chinese gulag.
