China remains the main target of the Trump administration’s tariff war. However, it reportedly is affecting American consumers as much as Chinese producers. This is demonstrated by a study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published on 5 November.
US sanctions, applied since mid-2018, have resulted in a reduction of more than 25% in imports of products subject to additional duties, UNCTAD reveals in its analysis. They are economically damaging to both countries: export prices of Chinese producers have been adjusted downwards, while point-of-sale prices for American consumers have been adjusted upwards, the report says.
Chinese products have also been replaced by goods from other origins, including the EU. The latter is estimated to have benefited from trade diversion effects of about $2.7 billion, mainly due to an increase in exports in the machinery sector. The other beneficiaries are mainly Taiwan (office and communication equipment) and Mexico (agri-food, transport and electrical equipment), but also Vietnam (communication equipment and furniture), the study also points out (https://bit.ly/32jnBQe ).
Arbitration on the dispute with the EU on steel and aluminium only to be concluded at the end of 2020
The European Union and the United States’ trading partners are also protesting Washington’s sanctions policy against them, the duties applied by the Trump administration under the barely veiled pretext of rebalancing the United States’ trade balance.
For example, the EU representative to the World Trade Organisation once again called on the United States, on Monday 4 November in Geneva, to remove its customs duties on imports of steel and aluminium on grounds of national security.
At this public hearing, held by the EU/US Steel and Aluminium Products Panel (DS548), WTO arbitrators indicated that their decision would not be issued until late 2020, according to a Geneva source. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)