After alienating allies with tariffs, Donald Trump is entering China trade talks ‘unprotected and alone’
‘This is really the US going it alone,’ said a former adviser to George W Bush. ‘By assaulting all our allies, we leave ourselves standing unprotected and by ourselves in a way we really never have been’
The Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on products from its top allies could weaken the hand of US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as he travels to Beijing to try to fend off a trade war with China. That, at least, is the view of many long-time trade analysts and China watchers.
“This is really the US going it alone,” said Philip Levy, senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs who was a trade adviser in the George W Bush administration. “By assaulting all our allies, we leave ourselves standing unprotected and by ourselves in a way we really never have been.”
Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice-president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, framed it similarly: “We are alienating all of our friends and partners at a time when we could really use their support.”
After briefing reporters on the administration’s decision to affix tariffs on imported steel and aluminium from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, Ross left for Beijing for negotiations aimed at resolving a dispute over China’s aggressive efforts to challenge US technological supremacy.
Trade analysts say that US President Donald Trump and his team should be enlisting their allies to present a united front to China. After all, US friends like Japan and the EU share many of the same gripes about China. They decry rampant theft of intellectual property and Chinese overproduction, which has flooded world markets with cheap steel and aluminium.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer joined with EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and Japan’s economics minister, Hiroshige Seko, in issuing a vague statement from Paris on Thursday that urged unidentified countries to do more to protect intellectual property and to reduce overcapacity.
But the US undermined the alliance on Thursday by instituting the tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium. Canada, Mexico and the EU all vowed to retaliate by penalising American products.