CHINA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The U.S. isn’t the only country that has a chip on its shoulder about trade. When it comes to China, so do countless others.
For President Donald Trump, this could be an opportunity to lead a coalition against China’s predatory trade behavior. Instead, he is threatening trade war with the countries that would make up such a coalition, over commodities that are much less vital to the U.S.’s economy and national security than the sectors threatened by China’s expropriation of intellectual property.
This comes at a crucial time. President Xi Jinping’s recent elevation to de facto leader for life may have finally buried the doctrine, subscribed to by previous American presidents, that drawing China into the global economy would liberalize its economy and politics…
But Mr. Trump has consistently rejected collective action in favor of going it alone. His officials downgraded multilateral efforts to reduce steel overcapacity. In January 2017, Mr. Obama’s administration launched a case at the WTO against China for subsidizing aluminum, but Mr. Trump has failed to follow up. Last week, Mr. Trump invoked a little-used 1962 statute to promise tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum, ostensibly for national security, a factor that led his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, to announce his resignation Tuesday [3-6-18].”
-Greg Ip, “Trump Alienates Allies Needed for a Trade Fight With China,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 7, 2018 08:46am