Experts attending the Singapore Summit this weekend said President Donald Trump was not the cause of the escalating trade war between the United States and China, but rather “just a symptom” of it.
According to Harvard University Professor Dani Rodrik, President Trump has worsened trade tensions between the two countries with his irrational behavior but is by no means the reason for such world developments.
“I think we must not exaggerate the importance of Trump,” he said. “I think Trump is very much a symptom and not the cause … Whether Trump is president of the United States or not, in many ways we’ll be facing such tensions. These are broad-based reactions to the kind of economic policies that we’ve pursued in the last quarter century,” Rodrik added, pointing to structural problems in the world economy and competition between rising economic and political powers.
Rodrik further said that the President is making the whole situation more difficult by acting “crazy” and accused him of having no long-term strategy. Trump has some “basic instincts” but is “not the kind of person who follows through, he can be easily diverted,” the professor continued.
The United States and China have been involved in a trade conflict for some time now, imposing tariffs on each other’s imports. The latest batch of U.S. tariffs of another $200 million on Chinese goods could come as early as this week.
Singapore’s former foreign minister said that the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies could go on for years, pointing to China’s rise which, he added, caused anxiety in the U.S.
Rodrik stressed that it was necessary for the two superpowers to find a compromise. “I think China will need to understand that it has been a free rider on the system created by the U.S., of openness, and it would have to provide a certain amount of … policy space for the Europeans and the Americans too.”
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