If Trump’s trade policy toward US allies is ‘phony’, by seeking only token adjustments to trade relations, then the US trade offensive targeting China is for real.
While Trump has repeatedly exempted US allies from tariffs (steel and aluminum), pitched ‘softball’ deals (South Korea), and tweeted repeatedly how well negotiations are going with NAFTA, in stark contrast the actions and words of the US toward China and trade negotiations in progress have been ‘hardball’.Jack Rasmus looks at how this has played out so far and how it is likely to play out as the game unfolds. The endgame remains uncertain, and the Chinese are skilled negotiators that know what is negotiable and what is not. If the US is intransigeant over what is non-negotiable, there will be a trade war in the end. For the Chinese POV, time is on the side of China as China's star rises in the East while America's star sets, along with the rest of the West.
This is economic warfare and the initial springing of the Thucydides trap.
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