he pingli | the "tariff stick" hurts both sides: pragmatic cooperation with china is what the us economy urgently needs
2024-08-30
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the office of the united states trade representative is expected to announce the final ruling on the new 301 tariffs imposed by the united states on china at the end of this month. the chinese products involved are all "strategic industries" defined by washington. the tariff increase measures were originally scheduled to take effect in stages from august 1. washington was quite confident in the "effectiveness" of the 301 investigation, but the tax action was postponed due to opposition from the industry.
at present, in the united states, with the election approaching, the degree of "politicization" of us-china economic and trade relations has reached its peak, and any "sign of weakness" may cause political problems. considering this, it is not easy to make a decision not to continue to increase tariffs. the current us election has almost become a big competition to criticize china, and no candidate dares to let the public think that they don't have the courage to compete with china.
first, the current president biden responded to trump's attack on him for being "weak" in dealing with china by showing "toughness on china". now, biden has passed the baton to the current vice president and democratic presidential candidate harris, who is trying to show a tougher image than biden and is increasingly under pressure for doing so.
mike johnson, republican speaker of the u.s. house of representatives, once publicly questioned harris, saying, "compared to biden, who are our opponents less afraid of? it's kamala harris." trump said that he is the only one who can scare the so-called rivals in washington. in order to deal with the criticism from trump and his supporters about her lack of experience in economic and diplomatic affairs, harris had to sort out her clear priorities in related matters as soon as possible.
although it is tempting to succumb to the populist impulse and play the “show tough game,” in fact most of the problems currently facing the u.s. economy are caused by this impulse and are the result of ignoring economic realities and market rules.
as many level-headed american economists and business people have correctly pointed out, america’s current predicament is not caused by doing business with china, but by refusing to engage in normal economic and trade exchanges with china.
the healthy development of sino-us economic and trade relations over the past decades has indisputably proved that as long as the market rules are followed and ideological stereotypes and constraints are transcended, the economies of both countries will prosper. but what we see today is almost the worst state of getting along between the world's two largest economies.
under the previous model, china played the role of a global manufacturing base and a manufacturing base needed by the united states, and provided a huge consumer market. in economic and trade exchanges, china has never "benefited unilaterally" as some american politicians tried to describe.
american businesses and consumers have also benefited greatly from china's highly cost-effective exports and the mutually beneficial and interdependent economic and trade relationship between china and the united states. as many have suggested, simply by eliminating trade barriers against china, the united states could significantly ease the high inflation problem that has persisted for several years and reduce the pain it has caused to american businesses and consumers.
there is widespread speculation that harris intends to "start afresh" and adopt economic policies that are different from those of both biden and trump. she is said to be trying to create a more ambitious and forward-looking economic plan and "focus on creating opportunities for the middle class." if this is really her top priority, then she only needs to face economic realities and demonstrate a grasp of basic economic common sense to make a difference.
establishing a pragmatic economic and trade relationship with china that is less politically motivated is the "remedy" that will greatly benefit the u.s. economy.
this article is adapted from the china daily editorial of august 29.
original title: reality is tariff hikes of no real benefit
produced by: china daily editorial office, china daily chinese website
translated by: tu tian editor: li haipeng
source: china daily
