Last week, President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would be slapping steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminium set off fears of a global trade war. But in reality, the international trading system has been unraveling for some time. After taking a quick glance at the World Trade Organization today, one might be excused for […]
The United States has thrown a spanner into the works of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the successor multilateral trade agreement to the once US-backed TPP. The liberalising pact is expected to be formally signed this week without America. Read Here – The National Interest
Confidence in globalisation saw massive amounts of Western capital and intellectual property flow to emerging markets, above all to China. But few in the West registered the geopolitical significance of this at the time. Instead, they praised the economic growth story. And not without good reason: the integration of China into global markets lifted a […]
Perhaps the clearest indication that the CCP is troubled by a confrontational United States is the imminent appointment of a veteran troubleshooter to a new post. Wang Qishan, the top ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping and former anti-corruption chief, looks set to become China’s next vice president and the point person for Sino-U.S. relations. […]
This should be a moment of grand optimism for Asia. The world economy is enjoying its fastest expansion in a decade. Forecasts show growth in developing nations accelerating especially quickly. Yet even putting this week’s global stock market wobble to one side, such bullish projections do not tell the whole story. Read Here – Nikkei […]
Djibouti, one of Africa’s smallest countries, has become China’s “strategic partner.” The Chinese have built a military base and a port, and is currently constructing a free trade zone, fast establishing it as Beijing’s gateway to the continent. Read Here – Der Spiegel
As so often with the Trump administration, it’s easy to get bogged down in the contradictory, unusual or flat-out salacious headlines. Solar panels! Washington machines! Den of the globalizers! No female CEOs! But Trump’s first trade week of 2018, which began with the imposition of retaliatory tariffs and ended with him giving a speech in […]
What’s clear is that almost overnight the US has transformed from a pre-eminent advocate of free trade into a protectionist villain in the eyes of both friends and foes. The bigger threat, however, is trade war turning into hot war, as the nationalist fervour extinguishes the fruits of globalisation. Read Here – Al Jazeera
Like any president, Trump is taking credit for good economic news. He’s highlighted rising stocks and falling unemployment. But Trump also, famously, regards trade deficits as a sign of economic weakness. And for people who worry about the fact that the U.S. buys more stuff from other countries than it sells them, the news has […]
The natural question is then: Why China? Why should China be that external actor? The reason is that China supplies some critical, missing input. That input is deep pockets — someone has to pay a large initial cost to jump-start the building of the infrastructure network, and the actor needs to be able to absorb […]
looking beyond borders 