OPINION:
To recoup the cost of copyright violations and the theft of intellectual property and research costs, the Trump administration should place at least a 20% tariff on international students who enter the U.S. to attend our universities. The exact rate can be based on the total cost of the education, including tuition, housing, books and food purchased and received from the schools attended.
In the past, some of these international students have photocopied entire brand-new reference books (usually on engineering and technology) or stolen new reference books from their university libraries, then shipped them back to their home countries. Similar thefts have occurred at American companies when international students have received internships through these same universities and gained access to the companies’ research and development records.
Within weeks, all the new technology and research held by our universities and companies has gotten into the hands of foreign companies and governments. Now, with smart phones and tablets, this often occurs almost instantaneously.
As long as we have international students attending our universities and completing internships at our companies, it will be impossible to stop this practice. That is why we need a tariff on international students to recoup the costs of these copyright violations and thefts of intellectual property.
EDWARD J. SMITRESKI
Northampton, Pennsylvania
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