Washington – The way President Donald Trump sees it, China should be easier to defeat China in the trade war.
After all, he argues that the Chinese sell three times more things than Americans sell Americans. Therefore, they have to lose further. Last month, he would impose adequate pain like a combined 145% tax as he laid on Chinese imports and they would be begging for mercy.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent has confidently compared to a card player who was stuck in Beijing with a lost hand. “They are playing with a pair of two,” “he said.
Some have forgotten to tell China. So far, the Chinese have refused to fold under the pressure of Trump’s huge tariff. Instead, they retaliated with their own triple-digid tariffs.
“All the bullies are simply a paper tiger,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced in a video last week. “Just invites more brutality to the knee.” ‘
This part is more than the two largest economies in the world, whose trade was at the top of $ 660 billion last year. Besent and Trump’s top trade negotiator Jamison Grea is going to Geneva this weekend this weekend to discuss preliminary trade with top Chinese officials. On Friday, Trump suggested that the United States could reduce its tariff in China, in the real social post, “5% tariff seems right! Scott.”
Business and investors welcome any ease of excitement, the possibilities of rapid and significant progress are faded.
“These are discussions about discussions, and can be evaluated on the China table-or even time to buy,” Washington-based Think Tank Foundation for Defense of Democracy Senior China Fellow Craig Singalton says. “There is no shared roadmap or clear way to the D-Eskell.”
However, if the two countries eventually agree to the huge tax tariff-they agree to hit each other’s products, it will release the global financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depends on the US-China trade.
John Gong, an economist at the University of Beijing, said, “The companies involved in the trade between the two parties can no longer wait.” Gong said that China could go away from discussion in the worst situation if the US party did not consider China as equal or Gong said not to take the first step in the discharge.
“I think (Besent) does not go into this discussion with this kind of mentality, but it may be very difficult,” he said.
At present, the two countries may not even agree who requested for the discussion. “The meeting is being held at the request of the US party,” “Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lynn Jian said Wednesday. Trump does not agree. “They should go back and study their files,” he said.
What seems clear is Trump’s favorite economic weapon – import tax or tariff – he did not prove as powerful as he hoped.
Jeff Moon, a commerce officer of the Obama administration, said, “The speech of what happened here was finally faced economic reality,” China Moon Strategies consultant is now a trade officer of the Obama administration. “The idea that he was about to bring China to the knee from the tariff was never going to work.”
Trump has seen the tariff an extent to which the US can raise money for the US Treasury, protect American industry, tempt factories in the United States, and push other countries to its will, even pressures on issues such as immigration and drug trafficking.
He used the tariff in his first term and was more aggressive and unexpected about imposing them on his second. He raised 10% tariffs in almost every country in the world, dismissing rules that operate global trade for decades.
However, it is his trade war with China that has truly put markets and businesses on the edge. It started in February when he announced 10% tariff on Chinese imports. By April, Trump spreads the taxes over China at a wonderful 145%. Beijing has raised its tariff to 125%on American products.
Trump’s growing financial markets have been swept away and warned US retailers that they could surpass the product as US-China trade implode. US customers concerned about the possibility of empty shelves and higher prices are losing confidence in the economy.
“This is not very well planned,” “Senior Fellow of the China Studies of the Council on Foreign Relations Janguan Joe Liu.” I don’t think he intended to increase tariffs in this chaos. ” ‘
When Trump struck Chinese imports with tariffs in his first term, he complained that Beijing used wrong techniques with cyberthoft to give an edge to its technology companies.
In January 2020, the two countries reached a war-the so-called Phase One Agreement; China agreed to buy more US products and Trump even stopped higher tariffs. However, they did not solve the major problems shared with the subsidies of homegrown technology companies.
China was ready for the match when Trump returned to the White House. According to the Atlantic Council’s Dexter Roberts, it cuts US share over 5% to 5% last year to reduce its dependence on the US huge market.
Beijing is confident that Chinese people are more eager to withstand the fall from a trade war with exports less than Americans and shutter factories. “It is painful for China, but it is also important to prevent it, and it is ready to deal with it,” “San Yun, director of the China program at the Sittson Center.
In addition to calculating the Chinese determination incorrectly, the Trump administration can underestimate how much the United States depends on China.
For decades, Americans have come to rely on Chinese factories. They produce 97%of the US imported baby cars, 96%of its artificial flowers and umbrellas, 95%of its fireworks, 93%of their children’s colorful books and 90%of its combms.
“What do they need to sell without us?” Chinese Toomaker Cheng Jhangrane told Beijing News. “Their shelves will remain empty.”
Showerhead company Afina said in an exam last month that American customers are very little willing to pay more for American -made products. Afina creates a filtered showerhead in China and Vietnam that spends $ 129. The price made of the same product in America will rise to $ 239. When customers were given a choice on the company’s website, 584 chose the cheap Asian; No one has chosen for the expensive US-made version.
And this is not just customers dependent on China. America also does its own factories. The National Association of Manufacturers Counts 47% of US imports from China in 2023 – “Production Inputs” – Industrial Supply, Auto Parts and Capital equipment that American manufacturers used to make their own products natively.
China Economist Louis Lu in a consulting agency Oxford Economics has said that China’s skills to reduce dependence on the US market in recent years are “they may probably be able to find alternatives for buyers, more simpler suppliers than the US parties.”
Yet, China will not get out of any trade war. Citing the influence of trade war, the International Monetary Fund has reduced the outlook for this year and subsequent Chinese economy last month.
“China needs the United States,” said Karolin Levit, the White House Press Secretary at Friday’s News Briefing. “They need our market. They need our consumer base and
Actually Moon, who also served as a diplomat in China, cuts the tariffs in both ways: “Both are dependent on bilateral trade. They put themselves in a corner.”
Jens Eskelund, president of the Chinese EU Chamber of Commerce, expressed the relief that US and Chinese officials were meeting.
“Very well, ” she pointed to the Vatican Conclave that just chose a new pope as an inspiration.” Lock these in a room and then hope the white smoke will come out. “
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AP Staff author Christopher Rugab, Washington Seung Min Kim and Josh Boak, Beijing’s Ken Morsugu and Taipei’s Simina Mistianu contributed to this story.
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