Xinhua Commentary: How unpopular the US is in imposing tariffs on China
2024-08-12
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 11 (Reporter Xu Supei) The Office of the United States Trade Representative recently postponed the new tariffs on China that were originally scheduled to take effect on August 1, and said it would continue to review public opinions. Judging from the more than 1,000 opinions submitted by hundreds of companies, industry associations, etc., the majority of people oppose the new tariffs on China. The reasons they cited include disrupting the global trade order, raising costs and damaging the interests of enterprises and consumers, making it impossible to find alternative products, reducing employment, weakening corporate competitive advantages, damaging public health, and affecting the shipping industry. This shows how unpopular the US's move to impose tariffs on China is.
In May this year, the United States announced that it would maintain the 301 tariffs imposed on China during the Trump administration, and significantly increase tariffs on Chinese lithium batteries, photovoltaic cells, electric vehicles, key minerals, semiconductors and other products. The previous US government launched a 301 investigation on China and imposed tariffs on China, which has been ruled by the WTO as a violation of WTO rules. This time, the tariff stick is wielded again to seek unilateral interests and disrupt the international trade order, which is tantamount to making a mistake on top of a mistake, and therefore has attracted widespread opposition. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the US government's substantial tariff increase on China may jeopardize global trade and economic growth. IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said that the US trade restrictions on China have exacerbated the trend of economic fragmentation and "significantly reversed the benefits of economic integration." Many experts and industry insiders in the United States believe that the United States' abuse of trade protectionist measures is damaging its own interests and competitiveness.
On July 29, Declan Daly, Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Council for International Business, delivered a speech at the China-U.S. Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum in New York, the United States. The China-U.S. Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum was held in New York City on the 29th, with more than 300 representatives of Chinese and American companies and business associations attending. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu YananThe United States has been wielding the tariff stick against China, bringing additional economic burdens to companies in both countries and American consumers. According to Moody's previous estimates, American consumers have borne 92% of the cost of the additional tariffs on China, and each American family has increased its expenses by $1,300 per year. Brian Steele of Victory Welding Alloys warned in his opinion that "the net effect of increasing tariffs on the US economy, especially American consumers, is absolutely negative," and American consumers who are currently suffering from high prices will further suffer from inflation. Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council, believes that maintaining previous tariffs and imposing additional tariffs will ultimately make it more difficult for American companies to compete at home and abroad, cut American jobs, and increase the burden on American manufacturers and consumers during inflation.
These public opinions are well-founded, and their words reveal dissatisfaction with the tax increase policy. Some small business owners said very bluntly that the motor equipment needed for their own company's production "cannot be bought in the United States or anywhere else except China." Craig Dean of Dean Technology said that importing high-quality and low-cost diodes from China does not involve the so-called "technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation-related behaviors, policies and practices" at all. Further imposing tariffs on diodes, the most basic semiconductor devices, will significantly increase the production costs of related American companies, making it difficult to compete with foreign manufacturers. In fact, previous tariff measures have caused the business of this American company, which employs more than 100 employees, to be lost to other countries. According to statistics from the American Tax Foundation, the imposition of tariffs on China will not only fail to solve the employment problem of American workers, but will lead to the loss of 142,000 jobs in the United States.
Unilaterally resorting to high tariffs will only backfire in protecting the competitiveness of American companies. Drew Bernstein, co-founder of the US accounting firm Marcum Asia, wrote on the website of Forbes magazine that the United States has used tariffs in the past few decades to support some industries that no longer have comparative advantages but are politically sensitive, but now these industries have lost their former vitality. "If tariffs become a permanent and rigid part of the economic landscape, they will eventually accelerate a country's decline."
Through these opinions, the impact of additional tariffs on China on the American public is obvious, from production, consumption to employment. The fundamental reason for the opposition is that the additional tariffs on China go against the real needs of the US economic development and ignore the real social conditions and public opinion. The US government should listen to the real voices from the industry, stop abusing unilateral trade measures, immediately cancel the additional tariffs on China, and return to the rules-based multilateral trading system as soon as possible. Imposing additional tariffs on China is harmful to others and oneself, and what is gained is infamy, and what is lost is people's hearts and competitiveness.
