Trump ’s Trade Policy is a Disaster, But Postponing the China Trade War Was Smart

Reactions in the United States to the Trump administration ’s announcement on Saturday that it would refrain from imposing new tariffs on imports from China for the time being have beendecidedly negative. One would expect criticism from the unions, the steel producers, and old economy manufacturing trade associations. After all, many seemed not the least bit concerned about burdening the economy with 25 percent duties on $50-$150 billion of Chinese imports and retaliation of similar scale against U.S. exports, as long as they secured for themselves a small bag of booty in the process. Trump ’s “America-First” brand of economic nationalism was everything they had ever hoped for—and now it may be in retreat.Likewise, one can understand why the administration ’s decision to reconsider its approach to Chinese technology companies and Chinese technology transgressions makes thesecurity hawks unhappy. Many of them have been peddling a self-perpetuating narrative that is one part fact to three parts innuendo, hearsay, and speculation that war (and not just the trade kind) between the United States and China is inevitable, and that there is very little scope for further cooperation. Why, they wonder, would Trump squander the leverage to compel real Chinese reform that was afforded by the results of the Section 301 investigation and ZTE ’s existential predicament?But I am most disappointed by those who present themselves as pro-trade, internationalist, cosmopolitan, and ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs