CHINA LASHES OUT AGAINST TRUMP TARIFFS

Written by Michael Thervil

Photo by AP Photo/Andy Wong

Is China leading the world in retaliating against President Trump’s trade tariff war? So far it looks as if it is. Without playing a quarter of its hand, China has slapped America with a 34% tariff on all of its exported goods to China. With China being considered “The World's Factory”, people are wondering exactly what goods and products does America export to China. Goods and products that America exports to China tends to consist of corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat, medical equipment, petroleum (refined), various agriculture products, and organic chemicals amongst other things. All of these items and more constitute roughly 13.4% or $143 billion in goods and products that will be subjected to Chinese tariffs. China's retaliation tariff wise comes after America's newest 54% tariff on China; China in response has slapped America with a 34% tariff on all their exports.

But China isn’t the only country slapping tariffs on American exports, countries such as Sri Lanka (44%), Myanmar (45%), the E.U (20%), Japan (24%), Laos (48%), Madagascar (47%), Mauritius (40%), Cambodia (49%), Saint Pierre and Miquelon (50%), Lesotho (50%), Falkland islands (42%), Vietnam (46%), and Thailand (37%). In fact there are at least 50-60 countries to date that have upped the ante when it comes to slapping new/increased tariffs on American goods and products. 

Currently, neither Russia nor America has placed any tariffs on each other. Why? One of the reasons for that is because America is attempting to not only end the war between Ukraine and Russia via a peace deal, but they are hoping to  prevent Russia from getting involved with America’s war on Iran. But it's predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin won't be easily swayed by America showing superficial appeasement to him and the people of Russia. Backing this claim is the fact that President Trump has yet to lift any sanctions on Russia; thus, President Putin knows better than to trust any future promises of the Trump Administration without America first lifting any of it’s sanctions on Russia.

What America, more specifically the Trump Administration is failing to understand is that the world has changed at least 4 times over and countries like China are not the same countries that they used to be in the 1980’s, 2010, the COVID-19 era, and even now for that matter. At the moment, President Trump is citing that one of the reasons for the implementation of his reciprocal tariffs on countries is because of “countries ripping America off” and his administration wants to put America first by simply putting America first. In other words, this means that the Trump Administration wants to put American workers first. But at what cost? 

Keep in mind that whatever action executed in the world of geopolitics often doesn’t manifest any results until years if not a decade after the action under scrutiny takes place. Hence, the more significant a change or shift in the global world order, the more dynamic the blowback is in the future and the more dynamic the blowback is in the future, the harder it’ll be to make any correction.

What you are looking at is the initial blowback of a trade war which is currently destabilizing  both the global market and the global order, and the longer it goes on with an increase in intensity, the more likely that countries may “lash out” militarily. Currently, what's being seen on the world stage is which countries are willing to become “vassal states” to  America; and it seems like the more the world changes, the more it stays the same.