Koon Yew Yin 10 Oct 2020
4 years ago, when Donald Trump became the US President, I thought it was good for all nations in the world. Almost all the previous Presidents were professional politicians. As a result, US fought 13 wars after the 2ndworld war. It dropped more bombs in Vietnam than in the 2nd world war.
I thought, Trump with his business experience, he could improve the economy of both US and China. I was so wrong. To reduce US trade deficit with China, he immediately declared a trade war with China by imposing import tariff and banning import of certain Chinese products such as Huawei 5G and Tik Tok etc.
US has been China’s biggest export market for a long time. Almost all the products in the US Walmart, Kmart and DIY Stores are made in China. Walmart and Kmart are the 2 largest retailers of electronics, toys, clothing, bedding, furniture & home decor. No Americans including Trump can pass a day without using a Chinese product.
No one can win in any war whether military or trade war. In fact, no one can win in any argument because both of can always find reasons to justify their opinion. Both can benefit if they compromise and reach an agreement.
Tik Tok is the destination for short-form mobile videos which capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments, directly. Currently, there are more than 800 million active users worldwide. The Tik Tok app has been downloaded over 2 billion times on the App Store and Google Play.
Moreover, for political reasons President Trump is bashing China to win more votes but fortunately, most Americans can see the truth of the matter. The most recent poll shows Trump is losing to Biden.
Covid 19 pandemic is the Game Changer
Covid 19 cases in China
China had the Coronavirus in Wuhan in early January and within 3 months the pandemic was under control. The number of new cases can be counted with your fingers. The Chinese people are very disciplined and they have started to recover very quickly. It looks like China is now one of the safer place to live in the world.
Covid 19 cases in US
Currently US has a total of 7.84 million Covid 19 cases as shown on the above chart and 217,000 deaths. These 2 figures are still rising. Its population is about 4% of the world population but it has about 25% of the total Covid 19 cases in the world.
President Trump and 21 of his family members and staff in the White House have tested Coronavirus positive; yet, Trump does not believe in wearing a face mask.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the biggest blow to the US economy since the Great Depression.
- GDP fell at a 32.9% annualized rate, the deepest decline since records began back in 1947.
- 30.2 million Americans were receiving unemployment checks in the week ending July 11.
The U.S. economy suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression in the second quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic shattered consumer and business spending, and a nascent recovery is under threat from a resurgence in new cases of coronavirus.
How does the import tariffs affect the consumers and the American companies?
3,500 US companies filed lawsuits
More than 3,500 companies have filed lawsuits against the US government over its tariffs on China in recent weeks, demonstrating the extent of unhappiness among businesses over Donald Trump’s trade wars. Coca-Cola, Disney and Ford are among the many large multinational corporations to launch legal proceedings.
US-based Abbott Laboratories, a leading manufacturer of coronavirus tests, has also filed a complaint. Lawyers say the companies, which include household brand names alongside small US manufacturers, have created an unprecedented caseload over a short period of time after lodging their complaints with the New York-based International Trade Court. The company argues that while the US government was entitled to apply tariffs on Chinese imports up to 12 months after producing its report outlining what it said were intellectual property rights violations by the Chinese government, two of the later rounds of tariffs fell outside of this time limit.
