“Honesty is the best policy” is hardly a hallmark of the Trump régime, so China would have been smart to pursue a more honest, less manipulative path in its simmering trade war with the U.S.
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke of plans to further open up the Chinese economy this week - and the world economy should hope US president Trump feels vindicated by this.
The $60 billion in tariffs targeting China not only risks sparking a trade war, they represent a rejection of the WTO’s much more effective way of dealing with unfair trade practices.
China established a system of approving foreign investments on condition the businesses involved agreed to partner with local firms and transfer knowledge and skills to the local Chinese market.
Even though Australia sides with the US on more areas of policy, it should be careful about being dragged into the back-and-forth of sanctions between the US and China.
While the tariffs are unlikely to stem Chinese intellectual property theft or reverse the steep trade deficit, they are certain to hurt American companies and consumers.
A global trade war seems well underway as China and the US exchange targeted tariff attacks. An economist explains what they are, how they work and why they matter.
Ottawa seems utterly unprepared for a trade war with the United States. The recent federal budget upholding equity values is noble, but won’t mean a thing if the government runs out of cash.
On March 1, Donald Trump imposed a series of steel and aluminum tariffs. To understand their potential impact, it’s instructive to look at what happened after George W. Bush enacted similar measures in 2002.