Kevin O’Leary, one of the wealthy panelists on the “Shark Tank” television program who entrepreneurs pitch to fund the growth of their start-up businesses, said he supports the Trump administration’s efforts to gain fair access to the Chinese market and protection of U.S. intellectual policy from all-too-common knockoff products.

Any short-term sacrifices, such as the loss of U.S. agricultural exports, will be worth it to achieve those key goals, said O’Leary, who also is the chairman of O’Shares Investments. O’Leary told me in a recent interview that the dozens of businesses he backs that manufacture goods in China have been victimized by the theft of intellectual property that is used by the Chinese to create similar products, then sell them in direct competition with the Western company that funded the research and development.

The result is reduced revenues and earnings for the American companies whose intellectual property is violated, O’Leary told me. Since women entrepreneurs predominantly receive his backing due to their track record of growing businesses profitably for him, they are particularly hurt by China’s unfair trade practices, he added.

Investment columnist Paul Dykewicz interviews Kevin O’Leary, who funds entrepreneurial ventures as a panelist on the “Shark Tank” television program.

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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce,Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulDykewicz.