- The belligerence and bellicose associated with Donald Trump in the last couple of months vis-à-vis tariffs must have caused the entire global community to experience tremendous amounts of apprehension/pressure not knowing how things will pan out. The last few weeks have been a roller-coaster ride for the whole world with the way the import tariffs have been imposed. The much-dreaded tariffs were introduced by the maverick and extremely unpredictable President Trump with fanfare, scaled back, paused, increased, and now, again paused after the stock markets took a severe beating around the world. That Trump would go ahead with imposing the tariffs was never in doubt. However, the flip-flops associated with the move make it a bit amusing.
PC: The Hindu
- People closely following the fortunes of the whole world would have noticed how Trump whipped up local emotions catering to loyalists of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement by imposing tariffs on countries. The ostensible reason is to offset the huge trade imbalance favouring other countries. Trump strongly believes that by increasing the import tariffs, the manufacturing in America will pick up the pace, lending further heft and traction for the local economy. Has Trump succeeded in bringing those countries to their knees by introducing the reciprocal tariff? Have the countries rushed to the USA in panic, requesting not to press ahead with the imposition of tariffs or reducing the tariffs at their end? Let’s dwell on the same for better inference.
PC: ATFX
- Other than causing severe mayhem on the stock markets, plummeting the investor’s wealth to abyss, the tariff war unleashed by the US President has achieved precious little. Agreed, a few countries wishing to safeguard their interests did contact the President’s team to seek a better bargain for their products. However, some of the bigger countries like China and India have not bent over backwards attempting to please Trump. Yes, Indian leadership has announced measured moves to consider reducing import duties on some of the US’s products. But the Union Commerce Minister has made it clear that no bargain will happen at gunpoint. That’s how any responsible country would wish to deal with other countries, even if it’s the USA.
PC: NBC News
- Nonetheless, China has refused to budge from its stated objective of introducing tit-for-tat tariffs on the USA and has also gone ahead with raising the tariff on imports from the USA. After raising the tariffs to 124%, China has mentioned that it will not raise them beyond this. Mind you, the USA has imposed a steep 145% tariff on Chinese products. Looking at the way China has stood up to the USA is a signal that shows Beijing will not simply cow down to Trump’s diktat just like that. It looks like Trump will have to swallow his pride while announcing the scaling back of tariff rates on certain critical electronic goods and semiconductor components/chips. With this stand, China has proved to the world that it has the wherewithal to stand against the most powerful country.
