Trump’s tariff plan would spark another trade war with China: analysts

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to slap tariffs on Chinese exports to the US would renew a damaging trade war between the world’s largest economies, where all would end up losers, said analysts.

Trump delivered his proposal at a rally on Wednesday in Tampa, Florida. He said that if elected, he would instruct the US Trade Representative to file trade cases against China, both in the US and at the WTO, Fox Business reported.

Tariffs would be necessary in some cases “because they have to understand that we’re not playing games anymore,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying. Trump had previously pledged a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods.

“We believe that whoever wins the US election, future US leaders will continue to adopt a basic policy of mutual cooperation with China that benefits US interests and Americans,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told daily news briefing on Thursday.

“Since the interdependence between the world’s two largest economies is a powerful means to deter each other, Trump’s proposal would be difficult to implement,” Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the China Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

However, a new US- China trade war would erupt if Trump gets elected and implements his proposal, said Song Guoyou, a professor at Fudan University’s Center for American Studies, adding that China would retaliate against US exports to China.

Echoing Song, Liu told the Global Times that the trade war would lead to a deadlock.

Song told the Global Times that trade war would have a negative impact on many areas in both countries, including China’s manufacturing industry, US agriculture, airplane manufacturing and the IT industry.

Furthermore, a US- China trade war would also drag the rest of the world into trade protectionism, Song added.

“I am going to instruct my Treasury Secretary to label China a currency manipulator. Any country that devalues their currency in order to take unfair advantage of the United States will face tariffs to stop the cheating,” the 70- yearold real estate tycoon- turned- politician added.

Labeling China as a “currency manipulator,” Trump would sabotage the current economic exchange mechanism between the two nations and agreements reached so far on the renminbi exchange rate reform, Song said.