From CNBC:
HARWOOD: ... under a Republican governor, the state of California hired a company in China to build major portions in the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, creating thousands of jobs in China. And California did that because it was cheaper. Is that smart, purchasing by government in a global economy, or is there something wrong with that?
...
HARWOOD: Governor Romney, was it a mistake for Governor Schwarzenegger to hire the firm in China to build portions of that bridge?
ROMNEY: Well, that's a -- a long answer to that, because what China is doing is not playing fairly by the rules that exist in our -- in the WTO and the world. China is, on almost every dimension, cheating. And we've got to recognize that. It is good for America...
(APPLAUSE)
ROMNEY: It is good for America to have free trade. It is good for us to be able to send our goods and services around the word and vice versa.
HARWOOD: So a good decision to build the bridge over there?
ROMNEY: That is normally a good thing. But China is playing by different rules. One, they are stealing intellectual property. Number two, they're hacking into our computer systems, both government and corporate. And they are stealing, by virtue of that as well, from us.
And finally, they are manipulating their currency, and by doing so, holding down the price of Chinese goods, and making sure their products are artificially low-priced. It's predatory pricing, it's killing jobs in America.
If I'm president of the United States, I'm making it very clear, I love free trade. I want to open markets to free trade. But I will crack down on cheaters like China. They simply cannot continue to steal our jobs.
(APPLAUSE)
BARTIROMO: But how do you crack down? How do you crack down, Governor? Are you talking about new tariffs? How are you cracking down?
ROMNEY: I'm sorry, pardon?
BARTIROMO: How would you crack down on China?
ROMNEY: Well, number one, I would do something this president should have done a long time ago, which is to label China a currency manipulator. And then I would bring in action at the WTO level, charging them with being a currency manipulator.
Number three, where they have stolen intellectual property, where they have hacked into computers, and where their artificial pricing is causing their goods to have predatory levels of pricing, I would apply, if necessary, tariffs to make sure that they understand we are willing to play at a level playing field.
We want -- we have to have free trade. That's essential for the functioning of a strong economy. But we cannot allow one nation to continue to flaunt the rules and kill our jobs by allowing them continue as they have.
(APPLAUSE)
BARTIROMO: Speaker, in addition to that, so many companies -- multinational companies, want to try to get a foothold in China and sell to the billion-and-a-half people there. They can only do joint ventures. They're not getting a fair shake in terms of selling to that 1.5 billion person population. How would you move the needle?
GINGRICH: Well, there are two things here. And let me say in advance that I would yield in part to Governor Huntsman, because he speaks fluent Chinese, he has worked in China, and he's been the ambassador. And I'd be curious to get his reaction.
But there are two different parts here. The problem with building the bridge is simple. What -- what is it about American regulations, American taxation, American labor cost and attitudes that makes it cheaper to go to China than to go to the United States? Now, we...
(APPLAUSE)
... first of all, you've got to decide, how are we going to be more competitive and how are we going to be the lowest cost? And there's a new Boston consultant (ph) that says, by 2015, South Carolina and Alabama will be cheaper than the Chinese coastal provinces to manufacturing.
Second, in terms of dealing with China strategically, I think we're going to have to find ways to dramatically raise the pain level for the Chinese cheating, both in the hacking side, but also on the stealing and intellectual property side. And I don't think anybody today has a particularly good strategy for doing that.
BARTIROMO: Time. Thirty seconds. Jon Huntsman, you were the ambassador to China, 30 seconds to respond.
HUNTSMAN: Thirty seconds? For Heaven's sake. Let me just say that we've had a 40-year relationship with China. It's a -- it's a troublesome and problematic relationship, very, very complicated.
But the bottom line is, I mean, you can give applause lines and you can kind of pander here and there. You start a trade war if you start slapping tariffs randomly on Chinese products based upon currency manipulation. That's not a good idea.
But longer term, we're just going to have to keep doing business the way we've always done, is sit down, you find solutions to the problems, and you move forward. It isn't easy. It isn't glamorous. It's grinding it out the way we've done for 40 years. And for 40 more years, we're going to have to do it the same way.
HARWOOD: Are you saying Governor Romney's pandering?
HUNTSMAN: I'm saying that you can throw out applause lines and you can say that you're going to slap on tariffs. You know, that doesn't work...
(CROSSTALK)
HARWOOD: But you're suggesting it. He's standing right here. Would you say that he's pandering on this issue?
HUNTSMAN: Well, I've said it before. I think that -- that that policy is one of simply pandering, just throwing a tariff on for the sake of an artificially valued currency, which is, in fact, the case.
But here's what they do in response. They say, you have an artificially valued currency, too, with those quantitative easing programs. You, too, are manipulating you're -- and we're going to slap something on your products. And before long, you have a trade war.
But let me tell you longer...
(APPLAUSE)
HARWOOD: Governor Romney, are you pandering?
ROMNEY: Look, I've been in business all my life, 25 years. I consulted to businesses around the world. I've been in business where we competed around the world. I understand free trade; I like free trade. I know that America can compete with anyone in the world. Newt is right about -- about our capacity to manufacture and compete heads-on versus the Chinese.
But I've also seen predatory pricing. I've seen people price their goods at an artificial level for an extended period of time, such that they can drive other people out of business. And then when the other people are out of business, they can raise their prices. That's what China's doing, by holding down the value of their currency.
Let the currencies float. If the U.S. currency, for instance, is being inflated, let it float. Let us float. Let us have a market mechanism determine the value of our respective currencies, as opposed to the Chinese government continuing to put an advantage to their -- their producers. This -- this is no longer a time for us just to sit back and say we're going to let them steal our jobs.
