go figure right?
"But in the latest round of talks in Beijing, the negotiations seemed to have degenerated into haggling over the terms of proposed Chinese purchases of American products. Beijing officials offered to buy almost $70 billion of soybeans, natural gas, and other products on the condition that Trump drops his threatened tariffs. Other thorny issues critical to the future of U.S. competitiveness—such as the protection of U.S. intellectual property and China’s market-distorting industrial policies—got sidelined.
That has some in the business community worried. “If we continue down this path of focusing on reducing the deficit by selling China more food and fuel,” says Jim McGregor, chairman for greater China at consulting firm APCO Worldwide LLC, “we are headed toward becoming a highly developed Third World country that supplies China with natural resources and in the future can license technology from them.”
"The political nature of Trump’s tariffs may appear to make him less dangerous: In the end, he’ll settle for a few favors and not disrupt the global order. But the cost of his approach is far steeper. What he’s doing is strikingly similar to the way China behaves—using state power to manipulate trade in favor of certain special interests.
As a result, the U.S. is becoming isolated from its own allies. At a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers on June 2, the other six ganged up on Mnuchin over Trump’s tariffs and demanded collective cooperation on resolving trade issues. “It was the U.S. against everyone else,” said Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso. That, too, opens the door for China. Trump had a chance to team up with allies in Europe and Asia to pressure China to change its trade practices. Instead, he’s allowed Beijing to portray Trump as the problem in world trade. Chinese officials recently made a big show of lowering tariffs on a range of goods, from apparel to appliances. Although this may have minimal impact on U.S. exports, it has value in painting Beijing as the grown-up—with an eye on driving a deeper wedge between Washington and its allies.
Queue the Prince song.
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