#China #Protectionism #FreeTrade #Neoliberalism: "Friedman died in 2006, shortly before the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. The extensive political aftershocks of that crisis arguably include the election of a protectionist to the highest office in the United States, who has threatened to cancel decades of commitments to free trade at the risk of alienating his country’s closest allies.

As bewildered (and appalled) as Friedman would most likely have been by Trump’s demonization of free trade, he would have found it still harder to explain why China, run by a Communist Party, has emerged as central to the global capitalist economy. For the Chinese regime achieved this not by liberating its 1.4 billion citizens to maximize their private interests in unfettered markets but by controlling its currency, owning large businesses and intervening heavily in investment decisions by private companies.

Indeed, economic history reveals that great economic powers have always become great because of activist states. Regardless of the mystical properties claimed for it, the invisible hand of self-interest depends on the visible and often heavy hand of government. To take only one instance, British gunboats helped impose free trade on 19th-century China — a lesson not lost on the Chinese. Britain was protectionist before it was a free-trading nation. The United States itself was, while industrializing, the “mother country,” as the economic historian Paul Bairoch wrote, “and bastion of modern protectionism.” Its average tariffs in the late 19th century were nearly as high — 45 percent — as the steepest ones Trump has slapped on imports of washing machines. The philosophical father of economic protectionism is, in fact, Alexander Hamilton, the founder of the American financial system, whose pupils included the Germans, the Japanese and, indirectly, the Chinese."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/magazine/the-rise-of-china-and-the-fall-of-the-free-trade-myth.html

By imposing new tariffs on #steel and #aluminum, #Trump has embarked on a policy that is a clear and present danger to #US jobs and living standards. The tariffs are indefensible on their face. They'll raise prices for U.S. consumers and put U.S. companies at a serious disadvantage in export markets.

#America's allies and trading partners - including #Japan, #Canada, #Australia, and the #EuropeanUnion - are dismayed. If they aren't exempted, they'll feel compelled to retaliate against the U.S. action, just as the U.S. would retaliate against a unilateral rule-bending act of outright protection against its own producers. The administration will then feel pressure to retaliate against the retaliation. After all, it now has to show that trade wars are 'easy to win.' A self-defeating spiral of this kind is actually the definition of 'trade war.'


#WorldEconomy #Protectionism #Globalisation #GlobalTrade #TradeWar #EconomicPolicy #Economy #TradePolicy #InternationalTrade #TradeTariffs
Oh! What a Lovely Trade War
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-02/note-to-trump-trade-wars-are-bad-and-impossible-to-win

President Donald #Trump said Saturday (Mar 3) that the #EuropeanUnion's trade policies have 'been brutal' to the #UnitedStates, a sentiment he shared both online and in person after #EU leaders condemned his recently announced 25% tariff on steel and 10% tariff on aluminum imports.

Trump doubled down on his stance, tweeting 'our jobs and wealth are being given to other countries that have taken advantage of us for years. They laugh at what fools our leaders have been. No more!' Taking another hit at the EU, Trump tweeted about it again, this time suggesting that if the EU raises tariffs more, so too will the United States. The President's comments came just days after several European leaders reacted sharply to the President's tariff announcement.


#WorldEconomy #Protectionism #Europe #Globalisation #GlobalTrade #TradeWar #EconomicPolicy #Economy #TradePolicy #InternationalTrade #TradeTariffs
Trump: European Union has 'been brutal' to the US
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/03/politics/donald-trump-european-union-remarks/index.html

#BRICS #nations #vow to #fight #protectionism #socialnews

Beijing, Aug 2 (IANS) Trade ministers from India and other BRICS countries pledged to rise against protectionism and safeguard the multilateral trade system after concluding their annual meeting in Shanghai on Wednesday. The member countries — Brazil,…

#RCEP #can #offer #alternative in #face of #growing #protectionism: #India #socialnews

Hyderabad, July 31 (IANS) India has said that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a proposed mega FTA involving 16 countries including the Asean, can offer a forward looking alternative in the face of growing protectionism in the…

All you need to know about #trade #protectionism for #brexit

The 19th Global Trade Alert Report was published in 2016 by CEPR (Centre for Economic Policy Research).  It paints a gloomy picture of flat world trade and an alarming growth in protectionist measures.  Key figures include: World export figures are at a…

The world’s top economic powers dropped a pledge to oppose trade #protectionism amid pushback from the #Trump administration, which wants trade to more clearly benefit American companies and workers. Finance ministers from the Group of 20 countries meeting in the southern German town of Baden-Baden issued a statement Saturday (Mar 18) that said only that countries 'are working to strengthen the contribution of trade' to their economies. By comparison, last year’s meeting called on them to resist 'all forms' of protectionism, which can include border tariffs and rules that keep out imports to shield domestic companies from competition.


#WorldEconomy #WorldTrade #Economy #Globalisation #FreeTrade #FTA #EconomicPolicy #EconomicOutlook #EconomicGrowth
#G20 yields to U.S., drops no-protectionism pledge
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-commited-to-free-trade-but-wants-to-re-examinesome-deals-mnuchin-at-g20-meet/article34342410/

The world's financial leaders are unlikely to endorse #freetrade and reject #protectionism in their communique on Saturday (Mar 18) because they have been unable to find a wording that would suit a more #protectionist #UnitedStates. This would break with a decade-old tradition among the finance ministers and central bankers of the world's 20 top economies, who over the years have repeatedly rejected protectionism and endorsed free trade.

But the new administration in the United States is considering trade measures to curb imports with a border tax and would not agree to repeat the formulations used by previous #G20 communiques, clashing with #China and #Europe. #Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 and hosted the meeting of ministers in the town of Baden Baden, saw the lack of any formal endorsement of free trade as a failure.


#WorldEconomy #WorldTrade #Economy #Globalisation #FTA #EconomicPolicy #EconomicOutlook #EconomicGrowth
No Free Trade Endorsement Likely in G20 Communique
http://fortune.com/2017/03/18/g20-free-trade-protectionism/

#Protectionism against #Chinese #products #will #boomerang on #India: #Daily #socialnews

Beijing, Aug 1 (IANS) India’s attempts to protect domestic industries from overseas competition may offer short-term benefits but will eventually hinder New Delhi’s industrial development, a Chinese daily said on Tuesday. “The list of Chinese products…