盖茨驳斥美国政客保护主义论调

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.

微软(Microsoft)创始人比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)抨击唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)倡导的那种保护主义政治。盖茨称，美国是全球化“遥遥领先的最大受益者”，任何阻碍国际贸易的举动对美国都是不利的。

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.

盖茨表示，他还担心英国选民6月投票决定退出欧盟的可能性，以及欧洲出现的其他闭关自守迹象。

“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.”

“我不是英国选民，决定权在他们手里，”他在接受英国《金融时报》采访时表示。“但是在我看来，留在欧盟为英国带来的好处大大超过退出的好处。”

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.

这位亿万富豪慈善家表示，尽管今年美国总统大选的竞选期间出现保护主义论调，但商界没有人站出来肯定贸易带来的好处。

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.

其结果是，身为共和党总统候选人领跑者的特朗普和民主党总统候选人角逐者伯尼•桑德斯(Bernie Sanders)迄今基本上未受挑战；这两人都主张迫使美国企业把制造业迁回国内，同时撕毁美国现有的贸易协定。

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.

盖茨表示，这种政策是基于对现代美国经济的一个根本误解。盖茨曾在以往的选举中支持过民主党的希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)，但也曾向共和党捐款。

“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.

“谁是规模经济业务（软件、飞机、制药、电影）的史上最大赢家？嗯。那是谁？”他反问道。

“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.”

“我最近没有看过多少（尼日利亚）诺莱坞或者（印度）宝莱坞电影，对不起。（大赢家是）美国，”他说。“我们是全球化最大的受益者……而且是遥遥领先的最大受益者。”

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.

在被问及对特朗普和桑德斯的政策的看法时，盖茨辩称美国经济实力是建立在波音(Boeing)、微软等企业基础上的，这些企业高薪聘请工程技术人员，并向研发投入巨额资金，因为它们面向70亿人的全球市场，而不是3.3亿人的美国国内市场。

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

他表示，这意味着美国在医药等领域的创新能力是与全球化挂钩的。

“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.

“我们太想当然了，以为人们明白，消费者能够买到各种商品，并且受益于这些商品的价格竞争，美国还是这些规模市场的赢家……是一件大事，”他补充说。

“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’.”

“假如我们能够停止贸易一周，然后，波音、微软、好莱坞、制药企业为了好玩，在两个星期期间调整各自研发部门的规模。然后再过两个星期，人们会说‘天哪，那不是一个划算的安排’”。

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.

他把美国大选竞选期间出炉的政见与尼日利亚和委内瑞拉等国为了捍卫其货币而设置的贸易壁垒相提并论。

“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.

“关闭国际贸易是有切实代价的，有人——这与两党中的哪一个党都不应该有什么关系——真的得提醒人们，贸易为什么是一件好事，”盖茨表示。