Well, since we won’t have any videos this week, and teams won’t be analyzing any new issues, I’d like to share a link to a short article that I found on Foreign Affairs some time ago. I think this article is quite interesting to analyze, especially because its content is closely related to what we have seen in class during this partial.
Here’s the link to Robert McMahon’s “Daily Analysis”:
Foreign Affairs - Ill Trade Winds with Beijing
This article discusses the reasons behind a new tariff that the Obama administration placed on imported Chinese tires, after a petition was filled by the United Steelworkers Union. Some claim this tariff was necessary, since the great percentage of Chinese imports (17% of tires in the US) caused American factories to close. Most analysts, however, comment on the negative outcomes that this decision could have. First of all, many are concerned about a Chinese reprisal against American products, which could end up in an escalation of protectionism between the economies of these two countries, or even trade war. Then, there’s the risk of raising Chinese nationalism or of triggering China’s return to a more closed market. Besides, this shouldn’t have happened just before the G-20 summit, when cooperation between these powerful countries was most needed.
