Wall Street Journal (September 11)
“For every American employed making steel or aluminum in 2018, 36 were employed by firms that used steel or aluminum as inputs. By raising the prices of these metals, Mr. Trump’s tariffs destroyed far more manufacturing jobs than they created. Overall manufacturing employment fell in each of the four quarters of 2019…. Under Mr. Trump’s protectionist policy, total manufacturing output was 2% lower by the start of the pandemic than it was when he raised tariffs.”
Tags: 2018, Aluminum, Destroyed, Employment, Fell, Inputs, Jobs, Manufacturing, Metals, Output, Pandemic, Prices, Protectionist policy, Steel, Tariffs, Trump
The Guardian (December 24)
“The Brexit deal itself is nothing but thin gruel. It will make it much harder for Britain to sell services to EU countries, where we were once advantaged. Britons will lose their right to freely travel, work and settle in other European countries. While there will be no tariffs or restrictions on the quantity of goods that can be sold, British exports will for the first time in decades face checks on their origins and compliance with EU regulations.”
Tags: Advantaged, Brexit deal, Compliance, EU, EU regulations, Exports, Restrictions. Goods, Services, Tariffs, Travel, Work
CNN (December 7)
“With days left to reach a trade deal with the European Union, the stakes have never been higher.” Boris Johnson “will have to decide whether sticking to his guns on national sovereignty… makes real-world sense given the economic price the United Kingdom will pay if negotiations fail.” In a no-deal exit “UK companies, already reeling from the pandemic, would lose tariff-free, quota-free access to a market of 450 million consumers that is currently the destination for 43% of British exports.”
Tags: Access, Consumers, EU, Johnson, Market, Negotiations, No-deal, Pandemic, Quotas, Sovereignty, Stakes, Tariffs, Trade, UK
Wall Street Journal (November 1)
In the U.S., “GDP growth accelerated to 3% for a time along with investment, but then came Mr. Trump’s trade interventions. More than the damage from tariffs, business confidence fell amid the uncertainty of what Mr. Trump might do next. This has led to slower growth that is reflected in roughly 2% GDP growth in the last two quarters…. The strong evidence is that trade policy is the main growth culprit.”
Tags: Business confidence, Culprit, Damage, GDP, Growth, Interventions, Investment, Tariffs, Trade, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty
Bloomberg (October 17)
“The IMF estimates that the U.S.-China trade war has shaved 0.8 percentage points off global growth,” but “the costs of tariffs could prove higher than just an economic slowdown.” The largely neglected threat is that the “slowdown, combined with a decade of ultra-loose monetary policy, could cause a wave of defaults among corporations. This double whammy could threaten the world’s financial stability.”
Tags: China, Costs, Defaults Financial stability, Global growth, IMF, Monetary policy, Slowdown, Tariffs, Trade war, U.S.
The Economist (August 10)
“Since the trade war began in 2018 the damage done to the global economy has been surprisingly slight.” No longer. “This week the picture darkened as the confrontation between America and China escalated, with more tariffs threatened and a bitter row erupting over China’s exchange rate.” Compromise is essential. “But for that to happen President Donald Trump and his advisers must rethink their strategy…. America cannot have a cheap currency, a trade conflict and a thriving economy.”
Tags: China, Compromise, Confrontation, Damage, Exchange rate, Global economy, Tariffs, Trade war, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (August 1)
“President Trump moved Thursday to extend tariffs to essentially all Chinese imports, escalating a trade conflict that is poised to hit U.S. consumers in the pocketbook and roiling financial markets…. Wall Street was rattled by the news.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all closed lower. “Oil prices sank almost 8%, their biggest drop since February 2015.”
Tags: China, Dow Jones, Financial markets, Imports, Nasdaq, Oil, Rattled, Tariffs, Trade conflict, Trump, U.S. consumers, Wall Street
CNBC (June 8)
U.S. President Donald Trump “is playing a risky game by weaponizing US economic power with tariffs…. What’s clear already is that friends and rivals are more interested than ever before in exploring alternatives to the U.S.-dominated system.” This won’t take place overnight, but “consistent overuse of U.S. economic power has made the unthinkable more plausible.”
Tags: Economic power, Plausible, Risky, Tariffs, Trump, U.S.-dominated system, Unthinkable, Weaponizing
South China Morning Post (June 3)
“US President Donald Trump’s trade wars have ‘progressed’ beyond the stage of simple tariff punches (painful though these can be) to attacks on the central nervous system of global technology trade networks—and that is going to be far more damaging to all concerned, including the US.”
Tags: Attacks, Damaging, Tariffs, Technology, Trade networks, Trade wars, Trump, US
CBS News (May 13)
“The U.S. imports far more Chinese goods than China imports from the U.S. So China can’t directly impose retaliatory tariffs equal to Mr. Trump’s…. The U.S. just doesn’t send enough goods to China.” China could, however, let the yuan weaken and this may prove their best response. “If the Chinese currency were to drop in value, it would make the country’s goods less expensive in foreign markets, propping up export demand and volume abroad.”
Tags: China, Currency, Export demand, Imports, Retaliatory, Tariffs, Trump, U.S., Weaken, Yuan
