Wall Street Journal (April 3)
“Donald Trump hasn’t been talking about the rising stock market lately, and no wonder. Stocks have given up their earlier gains since the President unveiled his protectionist trade agenda” amid concern over “uncertainty from rising trade tension.” So far, China’s response “is measured, affecting $3 billion in annual trade or about 2% of U.S. goods exports to China, but it sends a pointed message that a larger trade war would hurt American businesses, farmers in particular.” If China subsequently moves to target “America’s biggest exports to China, such as soybeans and Boeing aircraft,” the pain will be much greater.
Tags: Boeing, China, Concern, Exports, Farmers, Protectionist, Soybeans, Stock market, Trade, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty
Forbes (October 23)
“To foreign businesses seeking to stake out a spot in industries that will power China’s bold new future, Xi’s roadmap is far from reassuring: It entails a protectionist bent that will reduce their market share in the world’s second largest economy—an issue that risks driving a wedge between Beijing and Washington in Xi’s second five-year term, analysts warn.”
Tags: China, Economy, Foreign businesses, Future, Industries, Market share, Protectionist, Roadmap, Xi
Financial Times (July 5)
If Japan and the EU sign their free trade agreement, it “will stand as a powerful rejection of Donald Trump’s protectionist posture…. It will also highlight the challenge facing Britain. A hard Brexit would leave UK companies in some sectors on worse trade terms with their neighbour Europe than Japanese competitors halfway around the world.” There’s no shortage of irony as “the UK and the US risk being left behind — or forced to rethink their repudiation of the global order they built.”
Tags: Brexit, Competitors, EU, Free trade, Global order, Japan, Protectionist, Trump, UK
The Economist (May 7)
“It is now clear that Republicans will be led into the presidential election by a candidate who said he would kill the families of terrorists, has encouraged violence by his supporters, has a weakness for wild conspiracy theories and subscribes to a set of protectionist and economically illiterate policies that are by turns fantastical and self-harming.” Somehow, Donald Trump now has a chance to win the presidency. “The result could be disastrous for the Republican Party and, more important, for America.”
Tags: Conspiracy, Disastrous, Donald Trump, Economically illiterate, Election, President, Protectionist, Republicans, Terrorists, U.S., Violence, Weakness
The Economist (July 5)
Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo are facing off in Indonesia’s July 9 presidential election. While both candidates support protectionist policies, “Jokowi’s appears milder. Foreign investors certainly prefer him: Deutsche Bank reports that if Mr Prabowo wins, 56% of investors surveyed would sell their Indonesian assets and just 13% would buy, while a Jokowi win would cause 74% to buy and just 6% to sell.”
Tags: Assets, Candidates, Election, Indonesia, Investors, Joko Widodo, Prabowo Subianto, President, Protectionist
New York Times (May 6)
“French officials should not seek to block G.E. simply because it’s based in Connecticut.” The protectionist arguments being used to thwart the sale of Alstom’s energy business “can only discourage non-European businesses from investing in France, further damaging a sluggish economy that already suffers from a 10.4 percent unemployment rate.”
Tags: Alstom, Economy, Energy business, France, G.E., Investing, Officials, Protectionist, Unemployment