White House Explains How US Would Win Trade War With China

President Donald Trump on Thursday directed United States trade officials to identify tariffs on $100 billion more Chinese imports, upping the ante in an already high-stakes trade confrontation between the world’s two largest economies.

This trade fight will benefit cotton producers, but Brazil will not replace the USA, the largest exporters in the world.

The U.S. tariffs target the high-end technology products made in China.

The biggest category of US imports from China past year was communications equipment, such as cellphones, and computer equipment.

“We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the United States”, the President tweeted. USA trade associations join the protest, warning that any tariffs confrontation with China would be “harmful” to Americans.

“I think China is perfectly happy to play a game of chicken with the United States on this because they believe the USA will blink first”.

Trump has said in speeches that the United States will no longer let China take advantage of it on trade, and bipartisan support has been steadily building in Washington to address what are seen as Chinese abuses.

The public has until May 11 to submit comments on the proposed list of USA tariffs, with a hearing scheduled for May 15.

Mr Trump reiterated in his statement on Thursday that China’s “illicit trade practices” had been ignored by Washington for years and had destroyed “thousands of American factories and millions of American jobs”. China is the biggest buyer of American soybeans; about one out of every three soybeans that comes out of the ground in this country gets shipped there.

Market reaction in Asia on Friday suggested investors were relatively untroubled by the latest twist in the trade spat.

Washington has called for the $50 billion in extra duties after it said a probe determined Chinese government policies are created to transfer USA intellectual property to Chinese companies and allow them to seize leadership in key high-technology industries of the future.

Therefore, he imposed the tariffs to help the country reduce the deficit.

Soybeans and corn are among a long list of US exports that would be subject to a 25 percent Chinese import tax.

China is the largest market for USA soy and the threat of tariffs on exports of the commodity has the potential to whip up trade anxieties in stalwart Republican areas. That could prompt a rise in the rate of interest it pays and increase the cost of serving America’s vast national debt. China wasted no time in firing back with 25-percent tariffs on imports of 106 US products, including soybeans, automobiles, chemicals, and aircraft.

He added: “When you’re already $500 Billion DOWN, you can’t lose!”

A trade war could be disastrous for the two countries and the global economy.

Nearly by definition, trade wars are negative-sum games and, as such, the chief antagonists would suffer, according to Dr. James Jingdong Wang, associate professor at City University of Hong Kong. “The best possible outcome is for both sides to come to the table and work out their disputes in a transparent fashion“. “Many, many people are saying that nobody wins a trade war”.