Washington: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to slap tariffs on Chinese products to show Beijing that the United States is “not playing games anymore” when it comes to levelling the field on trade.
Addressing a rally in Tampa, Florida, Trump said that if he was elected in November, he would instruct the US trade representative to bring cases against China both in the United States and at the World Trade Organisation.
Tariffs would be necessary in some cases “because they have to understand that we’re not playing games anymore,” he added.
Trump had previously pledged a 45 per cent tariff on Chinese goods.
Trump said on Wednesday that the trade deficit with China was more than $500 billion (Dh1.8 trillion), although the figure given by the US government put it at $367 billion in 2015. The United States has brought cases against China at the WTO, and US
officials have frequently slapped antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese products under US law based on complaints brought by US producers.
“We believe that whoever wins the US election, future US
leaders will continue to adopt a basic policy of mutual cooperation with China that accords with US interests and the interests of the US people,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters on Thursday.
Trump, who is running behind Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in opinion polls, has pledged to return manufacturing jobs to America, although many economists believe that the “China shock” has long since passed.
Economists at the Federal Reserve and elsewhere estimate that the “China shock” in the wake of the country’s accession to the WTO cost 800,000 to 1 million jobs in the United States. By way of comparison, US manufacturing has shed 5 million jobs since 2000.
Factbox: Why it matters
In this angry election year, many American voters are deeply sceptical about free trade — or downright hostile to it.
The backlash against trade threatens a pillar of US policy since the Second World War: Through trade pacts and institutions like the World Trade Organisation, the United States has sought to rip down barriers to global commerce, including quotas and taxes on imports.
Economists argue that the benefits of free trade outweigh the costs. Imports cut prices for consumers, and exposure to foreign competition makes American firms and the overall US economy more efficient. There’s a geopolitical angle, too: Countries that do business with each other are less likely to go to war. Free trade, it seemed, paid off.
But doubts lingered, especially as China emerged as an economic power. China overwhelmed the world with hundreds of millions of low-paid factory workers who could crank out products for less than just about anybody else. And critics charge that China doesn’t play by the rules — unfairly subsidising exporters, manipulating its currency to give them a competitive edge and condoning the theft of US trade secrets. Whatever the reasons, the United States last year ran a $334 billion (Dh1.2 trillion) trade deficit with China — a big chunk of America’s $500 billion total trade deficit.
Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton oppose the trade agreements that are a hallmark of US economic policy. Clinton has broken with President Barack Obama by opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement that Obama’s administration hammered out with 11 Pacific Rim countries (excluding China) and that awaits congressional approval. Awkwardly for Clinton, she had called the agreement the “gold standard” for trade deals when she was Obama’s secretary of state.
Trump vows to tear up existing trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, and to slap huge tariffs on Chinese imports. He traces America’s economic problems to bad trade deals reached by clueless US negotiators outfoxed by craftier foreigners. The author of “The Art of the Deal” says he can do better.
Foreign competition is one reason America has lost 3.4 million factory jobs since China joined the World Trade Organisation and became a bigger part of global trade in 2001.
