Tagged: Trade

The lure of the China market is legendary. The dream: Sell something to 1.3 billion people, and you're set.

The reality is totally different.

Ask the MBAs from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School who tried to launch Auntie Anne's pretzels in China. The result is a funny, instructive and occasionally harrowing journey that is now the subject of a new book, The China Twist.

Any day now, you might be able to download Argo, Lincoln and Les Mis for a dime a piece. Microsoft Office could go for a quarter. A song might cost a penny. And it could all be perfectly legal under international law.

As part of a long-running trade dispute, the tiny island nation of Antigua and Barbuda (population: 90,000) won the right to use the intellectual property of U.S. firms — without having to pay any royalties or licensing fees.

At a meeting in Geneva today, the country got the final go ahead from the World Trade Organization.

The Obama Administration is losing another top official. Trade Representative Ron Kirk says he'll leave at the end of February.