蓋茨駁斥美國政客保護主義論調

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has attacked Donald Trump’s brand of protectionist politics, arguing that as “the biggest beneficiary by far” of globalisation, the US would suffer from any move to hinder international trade.

微軟(Microsoft)創始人比爾•蓋茨(Bill Gates)抨擊唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)倡導的那種保護主義政治。蓋茨稱，美國是全球化“遙遙領先的最大受益者”，任何阻礙國際貿易的舉動對美國都是不利的。

Mr Gates said he was also worried about the prospect of UK voters in June voting to leave the EU and other signs of Europe turning inward.

蓋茨表示，他還擔心英國選民6月投票決定退出歐盟的可能性，以及歐洲出現的其他閉關自守跡象。

“I’m not a UK voter and they get to decide,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “[But] the benefits to the UK of being in [the EU], in my view, greatly exceed the benefits of being out.”

“我不是英國選民，決定權在他們手裏，”他在接受英國《金融時報》採訪時表示。“但是在我看來，留在歐盟爲英國帶來的好處大大超過退出的好處。”

The billionaire philanthropist said no one in the business community was in effect arguing for the benefits of trade, despite the protectionist rhetoric in this year’s US presidential campaign.

這位億萬富豪慈善家表示，儘管今年美國總統大選的競選期間出現保護主義論調，但商界沒有人站出來肯定貿易帶來的好處。

As a result, candidates such as Mr Trump, the Republican frontrunner, and Democrat Bernie Sanders, both of whom advocate forcing US companies to bring manufacturing home and tearing up existing US trade agreements, have been largely unchallenged.

其結果是，身爲共和黨總統候選人領跑者的特朗普和民主黨總統候選人角逐者伯尼•桑德斯(Bernie Sanders)迄今基本上未受挑戰；這兩人都主張迫使美國企業把製造業遷回國內，同時撕毀美國現有的貿易協定。

Mr Gates, who has supported Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate, in past elections, but who has also donated money to the Republicans, said such policies were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the modern US economy.

蓋茨表示，這種政策是基於對現代美國經濟的一個根本誤解。蓋茨曾在以往的選舉中支持過民主黨的希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)，但也曾向共和黨捐款。

“Who is the monster winner of all time in scale economic business — software, airplanes, pharmaceuticals, movies? Mmm. I wonder who that is?” he asked rhetorically.

“誰是規模經濟業務（軟件、飛機、製藥、電影）的史上最大贏家？嗯。那是誰？”他反問道。

“I haven’t watched many [Nigerian] Nollywood or [Indian] Bollywood movies recently, sorry. [The big winner is] the US,” he said. “We’re the big beneficiary of globalisation . . . It’s the biggest beneficiary by far.”

“我最近沒有看過多少（尼日利亞）諾萊塢或者（印度）寶萊塢電影，對不起。（大贏家是）美國，”他說。“我們是全球化最大的受益者……而且是遙遙領先的最大受益者。”

Asked about the policies of Mr Trump and Mr Sanders, he argued that US economic strength was built on companies such as Boeing and Microsoft, which hire highly paid engineers and spend billions of dollars on research, since they focus on a global market of 7bn rather than a domestic one of 330m.

在被問及對特朗普和桑德斯的政策的看法時，蓋茨辯稱美國經濟實力是建立在波音(Boeing)、微軟等企業基礎上的，這些企業高薪聘請工程技術人員，並向研發投入鉅額資金，因爲它們面向70億人的全球市場，而不是3.3億人的美國國內市場。

That meant that the country’s capacity for innovation in areas such as pharmaceuticals was linked to globalisation, he said.

他表示，這意味着美國在醫藥等領域的創新能力是與全球化掛鉤的。

“We’ve taken for granted too much that people understand that consumers being able to buy a variety of goods and having price competition on those goods and us being the big winner in these scale markets . . . is a huge thing,” he added.

“我們太想當然了，以爲人們明白，消費者能夠買到各種商品，並且受益於這些商品的價格競爭，美國還是這些規模市場的贏家……是一件大事，”他補充說。

“I wish for a week that we could shut down trade and then, you know, Boeing, Microsoft, Hollywood, pharma would resize their R&D departments for a couple of weeks for fun. And then two weeks later people would go ‘Holy smokes, that was not a very good deal’.”

“假如我們能夠停止貿易一週，然後，波音、微軟、好萊塢、製藥企業爲了好玩，在兩個星期期間調整各自研發部門的規模。然後再過兩個星期，人們會說‘天哪，那不是一個划算的安排’”。

He compared some policies advocated in the US campaign with the attempts of countries such as Nigeria and Venezuela to erect trade barriers to defend their currencies.

他把美國大選競選期間出爐的政見與尼日利亞和委內瑞拉等國爲了捍衛其貨幣而設置的貿易壁壘相提並論。

“Shutting down international trade has real costs and somebody — it shouldn’t have anything to do with either of the parties — but somebody really has got to remind people why this has been good,” Mr Gates said.

“關閉國際貿易是有切實代價的，有人——這與兩黨中的哪一個黨都不應該有什麼關係——真的得提醒人們，貿易爲什麼是一件好事，”蓋茨表示。