The tit-for-tat tariff announcements have stirred fears that the two countries will spiral into a trade war that will crush global growth. Despite China’s deservedly checkered reputation in global trade, Xi has had no trouble claiming the moral high ground against Trump’s blustering, bullying disregard for the norms of global commerce.
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With the release of dueling tariff lists in the last 24 hours, China and the United States are getting dangerously close to a bona fide trade war.
If that comes to pass, it would spell disaster for the world, especially for a country like Singapore where we are hugely dependent on world trade.
Cui urged the United States side to abandon its unilateral and protectionist practices and terminate the 301 investigation as early as possible, and seek a solution through dialogues and consultations with the Chinese side.
Singapore, through Asean, must urge the two superpowers to take the proper route of resolving trade rows through the World Trade Organisation and not take unilateral action against each other as that is the surest way to a gloomier economy for the world. In recent months, economists and investors alike have liberally entertained the looming possibility of a trade war between China and the U.S. But no objective definition for such a conflict exists.
Both sides still have time to back down: Trump’s tariffs must pass a 60-day public comment, and China said its duties will take effect at the same time.
World stocks edged higher on Thursday as investors used signs of an easing of Sino-U.S. trade tensions to dip back into riskier assets.
While economies such as the European Union and Japan share Trump’s concerns about China’s economic policies, they’ve also been targeted by his trade actions, said Siddharth Mohandas, a former adviser to ex-Secretary of State John Kerry who’s now director of research at the Asia Group in Washington. That’s because – despite the campaign rhetoric, and this week’s developments – US policies have been more “reasonable” than he initially expected, he said. It’s also making Republicans apprehensive about explaining to midwestern farmers and auto workers why they’ve suddenly lost so much business.
While about a third of US production goes to the Asian country annually, China a year ago bought more of the oilseed from Brazil.
Proposed 25 percent USA tariffs on some 1,300 industrial technology, transport and medical products from China will be subject to a public comment and consultation period that is expected to last around two months.
We endorsed Trump (twice), and we believed in the promises he outlined in his inaugural address previous year.
Beyond the obvious nations that will be directly impacted by United States tariffs – the likes of China, Mexico, and Canada – other countries around the world are also likely to suffer in the face of increased import and export costs.
Financial markets have been unnerved for days by the trade fight and Trump’s management of it, with the president’s latest salvo sending USA stock futures tumbling and pushing up the safe-have yen. And aviation giant Boeing, which could see some of its smaller planes hit by China’s tariffs as well as higher metals costs, said the spat could “do harm to the global aerospace industry”.
But in the long run that could well mean the main beneficiary of a full-fledged trade war will be China.
On Monday, in response to earlier tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed by the Trump administration, China started tariffs of up to 25 percent on 128 US products, including fruits, nuts, pork, wine, steel and aluminum.
Given that exports are a very big part of the Chinese economic growth and because the United States buys heavily from China, do you think Washington has more ways to actually dent the Chinese economy?
“The actual economic impact will not be good, it will certainly be bad, the question is how large it’s going to be, we don’t know exactly”, Rodger said. “Actually it will hurt everybody, including the USA economy itself”. It will not protect American businesses or American consumers.
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The date on which China’s tariffs will be implemented depends on the outcome of negotiations with the U.S., Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told reporters after a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
