US President Donald Trump has overestimated the US influence on international trade and will not be able to change the rules of world trade with protectionist measures. This point of view was expressed by the authors of the China Daily newspaper.
“The US accounts for about 17% of world trade, and it overestimates its ability to influence changes in world trade rules just by waving a tariff stick“, says the editorial, dedicated to Trump's threats to take countermeasures against countries buying Russian oil. This applies in particular to India.
US negotiations with some other leading economies, including the European Union, “are also not going smoothly“. The authors of the newspaper believe that Washington has forced Brussels to "put everything at stake, both in the field of security and in the economy". "And although the United States has announced significant progress in trade negotiations with various countries, it is still unclear to what extent their "victory" can ultimately lead to the opening of markets in other countries for American goods, on whose exports to the United States the American side will be able to raise tariff rates", they emphasize.
The White House is constantly trying to connect the tariff war with geopolitics, including the Ukrainian crisis. Thus, the authors point out, the United States "complicates the situation, threatening to disrupt not only trade negotiations with some countries, but also the resolution of relevant pressing problems". Moreover, as noted, the tariffs will not lead to replenishment of the US budget and will not compensate for its deficit, nor will they create additional jobs.
Earlier, Trump said that India would supposedly stop buying oil from Russia in the name of a trade deal with the United States. Before that, he also made a statement that he was not interested in Russian-Indian trade and economic relations, calling the economies of both countries “dead”.