Perspective. It comes to you when you’re 7,500 miles away from Washington, DC. In late June I was in Shanghai for Happi China’s annual Personal Care Technology Summit. It’s a great event that attracts more than 700 industry suppliers and their customers to one of the fastest-growing markets in our industry. Shanghai isn’t the midwestern US. President Donald J. Trump’s rhetoric may play well in Des Moines, but the state-controlled press in China ravaged the US President and his $50 billion (and counting) tariffs that are set to take effect at the end of the month.


China can’t win the tit-for-tat tariff game as it exported $506 billion to the US last year and imported just $130 billion. And President Trump is right to be enraged by China’s intellectual property violations and its lack of true market access, but tariffs aren’t the answer; rather, investment in R&D is the answer.


Yasheng Huang of the MIT Sloan School of Management is calling for another Sputnik Moment in the US that will revitalize R&D efforts and spending; the later having fallen to just 0.7% of GDP in recent years. Back in 1957 when Russia launched the first space probe, the move shocked a complacent US into action and Project Mercury took flight. Now, with China moving full-speed ahead with its Made in China 2025 strategy, the time is right for the US Government, its allies and industry too, to step up spending, stimulate a new generation to follow careers in STEM, and generate a new age of innovation.


This issue of Happi includes our annual look at The International Top 30, a ranking of the biggest household and personal product companies, including China’s Shanghai Jahwa, with headquarters outside the US. Sticking with our China theme, read Happi Contributor Ally Dai’s report on the simplification of cosmetic regulations in that country. Also this month, we cover the fashionable world of color cosmetics and the more utilitarian oral care category.


We hope that you enjoy this edition of Happi and we welcome your comments and suggestions.