Four Ways to Save Free Trade
Governments that still support it have to sign more deals and keep the pressure on backsliders in Washington and elsewhere.
As if we needed another reminder about the importance of trade. After the latest failed round of negotiations between the U.S. and China, President Trump moved to impose yet more tariffs on Chinese imports. When they come into effect on Sept. 1, just about everything Americans buy from China will have a punitive duty slapped on it. Four days after Trump’s decision, Beijing’s leaders, as if to prove they were uncowed, briefly allowed the yuan to depreciate to promote China’s exports, instantly tipping off fears that the trade war would morph into a currency war. The U.S. Department of the Treasury responded by formally labeling China a currency manipulator, a long-threatened but usually avoided measure.
Stocks tanked, Big Business wailed—but to no avail. “If they don’t want to trade with us anymore, that would be fine with me,” Trump said of the Chinese.