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Chinese State Media, Scholars Snub Trump Threats of New Tariffs

Joyce Huang

   State media and scholars in China Monday snubbed U.S. President Donald
   Trump after he said he would resume hiked tariffs on Chinese imports if
   it fails to buy an additional $200 billion more of American goods and
   services in the next two years as pledged.

   They say that such punitive measures, once re-enacted, will instead
   hurt the U.S. economy.

   But some economists urge China to take Trump's threat seriously because
   the Chinese economy -- already badly hit by the COVIC-19 pandemic --
   will be the bigger loser, and cannot afford another tariff war with the
   United States. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.

   Inevitable war?

   Economist Darson Chiu warned that the re-emergence of the U.S.-China
   tariff war before the U.S. presidential election in November looks
   inevitable, given that the possibility for China to honor its purchase
   commitment reached in the Phase 1 trade deal is slim.

   By my gauge, "(China's) imports will have to grow 60% this year
   compared to 2019. This will be an impossible tall order. That means the
   U.S. will become China's largest source country for imports in 2020,"
   said Chiu, a research fellow at the Taiwan Institute of Economic
   Research (TEIR).

   If that happens, China will be a serious violator of the World Trade
   Organization's rule of non-discrimination, which forbids any member
   country to discriminate between its trading partners, Chiu added.

   Official statistics showed that China's imports of U.S. goods dropped
   to $122.7 billion in 2019 from $155.1 billion in 2018 and $154 billion
   in 2017.

   Weakened purchasing power

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