Yale economist Stephen Roach calls for China and US to establish global cyber accord, new forum for trade talks
- Economist calls for Washington and Beijing to set up forum for talks on trade, including ‘joint collection of data and information sharing’
- Urges Paris-like accord to monitor global cyberattacks
The US and China should take the lead in pushing for a global cyber accord and introduce a permanent forum for talks on trade, according to Yale University economist and leading Wall Street authority on Asia, Stephen Roach.
Rather than trade, Washington is more concerned about intellectual property theft from US companies and the long term impact that this will have on American innovation, Roach said. Adding to that perception are recent allegations of Chinese cyberhacking activities in the US.
Roach, 73, said the fundamentals for a strong agreement should include structural changes, such as a Paris-like accord for cybersecurity.
“It should require a new international body to monitor global cyberattacks to reduce the attacks, and help prevent them,” he said on the sidelines of the Morgan Stanley 2019 private wealth management GAIN Conference in Hong Kong on Friday.
Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global affairs and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, also proposed the two countries set up a permanent forum with a number of full-time staff to be based in a neutral third party jurisdiction. He did not propose the exact location, but said that Switzerland had often been chosen for such roles.
