By slapping tariffs, Washington harming itself and long-time partners

On July 6, the US announced that it would begin to impose a 25-percent tariff on $34 billion worth of Chinese product. This unilateral doctrine of bullying will affect China and the whole world.

As everyone knows, China and the US have conducted three rounds of economic and trade consultations before the largest trade war in economic history.

Under the premise of resolutely defending the core interests of the country and the people, the Chinese side fully demonstrates its sincerity, which can be said to take care of the overall situation and do everything in its power.

But the US is still ruined after all. In fact, it’s not just for China, from all the European allies on the other side of the Atlantic, to Japan on the other side of the Pacific, from neighboring Canada to India in the distance, in the eyes of the Americans, no matter who they do business with, they are always at a loss. And they can’t suffer any more.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the Paris climate deal, the UNESCO, the UN Human Rights Council... The Trump administration is addicted to the so-called “US Priority.”

The unilateralism practiced by the US is actually like selfimmolation. Whether it is political, cultural or economic, it is its own national credibility, economic interests and the well-being of its people that is at stake.

For example, about 59 percent of the list of $34 billion taxable products announced by the US involves products produced by foreign-invested companies in China, of which US companies account for a considerable proportion. US domestic business organizations have repeatedly warned the Trump authorities that raising tariffs is actually an increase in taxes on US companies and consumers.

It is understandable to let the manufacturing industry return, but the US practice actually makes its manufacturing industry “escape.” In the near term, in order to circumvent the EU’s retaliatory tariff on US motorcycles, US manufacturing representative Harley-Davidson was forced to announce the transfer of some motorcycle production overseas.

Chad Bowen, a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, thinks that many US companies will follow Harley-Davidson to relocate some factories overseas, which is the price of a “poor trade policy.”

It is impossible to establish authority with hegemony. The unilateral attack wave that the US has set up on a global scale seems to be a wind and water, and will eventually “play its own dragon.”

The author is a writer with the Xinhua News Agency. The article first appeared on Xinhua. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn