China Says ‘No’ to American Pigs!

Crescent International

Rajab 18, 1439 2018-04-05

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

Tuesday April 3, 2018

In a tit for tat, China has imposed retaliatory tariffs against the US on a range of goods including pork and wine after the US slapped tariffs on Chinese produced steel and aluminium.

While US tariffs on Chinese goods amount to some $50 billion, Beijing’s tariffs are only $3 billion. The Chinese response is measured and aimed at sending a clear signal that US unilateralism will not be tolerated.

China made clear that the move was intended to safeguard its interests and balance losses caused by the new US tariffs. US stocks plunged as a consequence.

There was panic selling of shares on Wall Street where the S&P 500 Index crashed 2.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.9%.

US President Donald Trump has called China an “economic enemy” conveniently ignoring the fact that America has lost the edge in goods and products.

Over the last two decades, the US has concentrated its resources by investing in stocks on Wall Street, shoveling money into Silicon Valley and waging wars on other countries.

The wars have cost the US economy more than $14 trillion over nearly two decades. And in the 2008 financial crash, Wall Street lost $19.3 trillion.

Far from competing on a level playing field, America always wants to have the advantage. Other countries no longer want America’s expensive but lousy products.

On March 8, Trump announced global steel and aluminium tariffs saying the measures were necessary to protect US producers and critical to ‘national security’.

American producers could improve their products but no, that is not the American way.

And China challenged the US use of national security to justify the new tariffs.

So what American goods has China targeted? These include American pigs albeit in frozen form (pork), nuts, fresh and dried fruit, ginseng and wine.

The Chinese would definitely be better off not eating pig meat. They should instead concentrate on eating donkey and dog meat. There are many countries that would be happy to sell them donkeys and dogs. The Chinese should avoid American pigs and nuts.

They would be nuts to import American nuts.