Written by Michael Thervil
Photographer: Pool/Getty Images
If you look around the world, the first thing that you will notice is that this isn’t the 1980’s and 1990’s when America and the Collective West could essentially bully their way through the international community by using sanctions to socio-economically bend people to their will. This is even more true today and with former President, now President Elect Donald Trump taking office in a few short months, the idea of weaponizing tariffs to “Make America Great Again”, doesn’t seem like the right action to take to achieve this goal spearheaded by President Trump.
The reason why we can say this is because historically in modern times, whenever America weaponized the use of sanctions and tariffs to either persuade or bully a country to bend to its will, the tariffs and/or sanctions ultimately backfired. Remember necessity is the mother of invention. America has piled sanctions on Iran since the 1970’s and those sanctions have failed to stop Iran from developing the things they need to sustain its government and its people. Even more than that, Iran has also made significant strides in technological advancements even though America and the Collective West has been sanctioning them.
Then there’s Vladimir Putin and Russia. America and the Collective West again failed to learn from its failed history of applying sanctions; and because of that failure, Russia’s GDP and influence has exponentially increased around the world, and in doing so, it has expanded the BRICS Bloc since it was forced to start its Special Military Operation now turned war against Ukraine and NATO. What’s interesting about America placing sanctions on Russia is that it didn’t place sanctions on how much uranium Russia could sell to America despite America placing heavy draconian sanctions on Russia.
Other examples where American sanctions have failed are countries such as Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Venezuela, and Yemen just to name a few. Now America under President Elect Trump wants to apply tariffs and even more sanctions on China. There's something to be said about biting the hand that feeds you, and there seems to be no better example than what Trump is looking to do when it comes to China, especially when you consider that China makes just about everything in America. On one hand, there is no American that can fault Trump from wanting to “put America first”. However, the question is to what extent?
With China being designated as “the world's factory”, many political pundits are taking the position that President Elect Trump, is being shortsighted in his approach to fix America's problem, which it created with its own hands. The reason why China is not afraid of what is now known as “Trump Tariff’s” is because they have already diversified their economic outlook based on the anticipation of the onslaught of Trump's actions. What we mean by this is that China has been forming strategic partnerships with various countries all over the globe by building functional relationships, collaborating and building infrastructure projects and engaging in the jump start of those countries’ socio-economic conditions.
Adding merit to our position here at VEDA Communications is the most recent shipping infrastructure project between China and the Peruvian government which was recently completed and now fully operational as of last week. The shipping and logistical transport hub is valued at an estimated $1.3 billion dollars. With the shortened shipping time of 25-35 days between the two countries, it will allow for China to bypass Manzanillo, Mexico, and Long Beach, California. Knowing that, it’s easy for the $489 billion in trade between the two countries to increase to well over $600 billion within the course of the next year or so. As a bonus, it was reported that this port can accommodate both exceptionally large cargo ships and the largest of China’s warships. The latter has the Americans worried.
With China significantly expanding its Belt and Road Initiative across the globe, the idea of the necessity of having to absolutely conduct trade with America, is becoming more of an afterthought than anything else. In addition to that, China also has the backing of all the ASEAN Countries (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) [the Philippines currently looks suspect]. We are making the prediction that if President Elect Trump applies sanctions and tariffs on China, no matter how well intended for the benefit of America, the following results will likely occur: America will end up working against its own self-interest and isolating itself from the world. Or China will end up overtaking America as a world leader in business, trading, strategic partnerships, and GDP.
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