How the twists and turns of the trade war are hurting growth
The IMF downgrades its forecasts for the global economy. Again
AFTER WELCOMING the St Louis Blues, a championship-winning ice-hockey team, to the White House on October 15th, President Donald Trump fondly recalled a recent triumph of his own: last week’s tentative trade deal with China. Simply put, America will impose no further punitive tariffs on Chinese imports if China promises to buy American farm goods worth billions of dollars. How many billions? “It’s very big numbers,” Mr Trump emphasised. “I said, ‘Ask for 70.’…My people said, ‘All right, make it 20.’ I said, ‘No, make it 50.’”
Will this carefully calibrated amount ever materialise? China does not want to pay over the odds or deprive other, friendlier suppliers of its custom. It also wants America to go beyond promising no new tariffs and to start removing existing ones. The deal may unravel before it is written down, let alone signed by the two countries’ leaders next month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Santiago.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline "Foggy outlook"
Finance & economics October 19th 2019
- A massive money-laundering scandal stains the image of Nordic banks
- Britain’s equity market is shrinking
- How the twists and turns of the trade war are hurting growth
- Is the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy unconstitutional?
- Greta Thunberg accuses rich countries of “creative carbon accounting”
- A Nobel economics prize goes to pioneers in understanding poverty
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