There is no mistaking the fact that the US president Donald Trump has given China the jitters the like of which it could hardly have dreamt of. By imposing tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese goods and identifying China as an “economic enemy”, Trump has indeed set in motion a potential trade war. With financial markets plunging and Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index dropping by 2.5 per cent, this is the effect of the US response to a country that the Trump administration says is responsible for thousands of lost American jobs and billions in lost revenues. The White House says its action is in retaliation for China’s use of pressure and intimidation to obtain American technology and trade secrets. The goods on which tariffs have been imposed range from shoes and clothing to consumer electronics. After Trump announced the move, China’s Ministry of Commerce said that it was proposing tariffs of its own on 128 products from the US, like nuts, wine and pork, that it valued at about $3 billion. China urged the Trump administration to resolve differences through dialogue, but so far, the US seems unrelenting.
President Trump’s actions fulfil his frequent campaign pledge to seek fairer trade deals with nations around the globe and to retaliate against trading partners if the US does not secure better agreements. Unconventional and unpredictable, as the US president has proved to be, this is his way of dealing with a hitherto unhampered theft of intellectual property. Many in the US, especially those who voted him in for his bold views, would applaud him for his extraordinary action. Trump has declared that the US would no longer tolerate running a trade deficit of nearly $400 billion with China, its second-largest trading partner, after the European Union.
