Europeans and Americans think hard about free trade with China

Pressure groups in the US proposed thebeginning of free trade talks with China almost the same day an EU committee debated its strategy for closer trade ties. No real-world politician gave either set of ideas any public support,

Full free trade between the major Western countries and China is highly unlikely in the forseeable future. But that's not what the US pressure group and the EU committees are discussing. The world isn't static, and the only real alternative to talks about improving Western access to China's markets is letting the Chinese carry on freezing foreigners out.

The May 2013 edition of The Source, like its predecessors, doesn't just relate the last month's sourcing news. It places sourcing events into their wider context.