Tag Archives: trade war

An unintended outcome of US President Donald Trump's trade war is that China will reduce its reliance on foreign trade and imported technologies. The end result could be a China that is stronger, more resilient, and possibly less willing to acquiesce to US-designed rules. No brainer. I've been saying this since the beginning of the so-called trade war. Like Russia, this is just forcing China to speed up what it was already committed to do in becoming more self-sufficient and developing the...

In handicapping the US-China conflict, Keynesian demand management is a better guide than comparative advantage. In principle, China can avoid any damage at all from US tariffs simply by responding with a full-scale Keynesian stimulus.... Trump’s surprisingly successful rhetorical technique of “shout loudly and carry a white flag” helps to explain the consistent inconsistency of his foreign policy. The US-China trade war is likely to provide the next example. Project SyndicateWhy the US...

Former Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan suggested on Wednesday that the direct impact on China of the trade war with the US "appears limited," though it could quickly prompt China’s top exporters to pivot away from US markets. Xiaochuan, who left the bank in March after 15 years at the helm, told Reuters that China's economy would be stable in 2018, with an expected growth rate of 6.5%…. Reuters said Xiaochuan downplayed the idea that protectionism will severely affect economic...

Trump then blamed China, saying that "because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the UN Sanctions which are in place)." This is in line with Trump's complaint from early July in which he said that with respect to the denuclearization process, China "may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade." Learning that unlike private deals, deals on the...

In effect, a tariff. ReutersU.S. calls foreign mail system unfair in surprise win for Amazon

The first is a should-read. The second is a backgrounder.Asia TimesSun Tzu and the Art of Fighting a Trade War From Baltic Sea to Black Sea, Russia aims for a win-win Pepe Escobar

Maybe the trade war with China isn't actually about MAGA at all, but just economic warfare against a rising competitor. If trade surplus are so "unfair," why is the focus not on Germany given the figures, enquiring minds want to know. Or, do Donald Trump and his economic team not realize this?Conversable EconomistSome Facts on Global Current Account BalancesTimothy Taylor | Managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, based at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota

Potentially in response to Trump's actions on China Mobile, a Chinese court temporarily banned Micron Technology chip sales, cutting the U.S. company off from the world’s largest semiconductor market.  Yesterday we specifically warned that following yet another targeted attack at a prominent Chinese company, it is only a matter of time before China responds in kind, and considering the size and prominence of China Mobile, one wonders howlong until China takes aim at none other than the...

The FT reports that according to officials and people briefed on the discussions, the administration has decided to restrict China’s ability to invest in or acquire US companies in the industries identified by Beijing in its so-called Made in China 2025 plan.… "The Trump administration, kind of across the board, has very much blurred the line and seems to be saying that any significant economic challenge the US faces is also a national security challenge."  This is not new actually. It is...

The Chinese economy has plenty of ways to counter US President Donald Trump's import tariffs apart from simply imposing parallel measures, writes Politico's authors Adam Behsudi and Doug Palmer, that have been used in the past and proven to be very effective. One misapprehension in the article, perhaps since the authors are American and influenced by American views of how China functions, is that the Chinese government can suggest a boycott of US imports that would be effective. The reality...