All walks of life in the United States continue to criticize the government for waging a trade war.
The U.S. government has been waving a trade war stick in recent days and attacking from all sides. This behavior has been continuously criticized by all walks of life in the United States, as well as around the world.
"We need a bigger refrigerator, and Trump’s trade war has piled up unsalable meat products." This is the headline of a recent news in Los Angeles Times, which said that the US government provoked a trade war, forcing Mexico and China, the biggest buyers of American meat, to impose tariffs on American pork products, which led to a sharp drop in US pork exports to Mexico and China. The unsalable meat worries American farmers. According to the Wall Street Journal, there are currently more than 1.137 billion kilograms of beef, pork and poultry meat products in the United States piled up in cold storage, and it is impossible to sell them.
Farmers don’t want government subsidies.
"We want the market, not government subsidies." This is the voice of American farmers for an agricultural subsidy program with a total amount of up to $12 billion announced by the Trump administration on the 24th of this month. The US Department of Agriculture said on the 24th that the above agricultural subsidies will be targeted at agricultural products such as soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, pork and dairy products, which are being affected by the countermeasures taken by other economies to impose tariffs on the United States. It is reported that the specific policy details will be announced before Labor Day in September. The US Secretary of Agriculture said that the subsidy program is a "short-term measure" to buy time for the Trump administration to negotiate long-term trade agreements with other economies.
However, it is surprising that the American agricultural community has no interest in the Trump administration’s agricultural subsidy program. The Trump administration wanted to use this plan to help American farmers who were damaged in the trade dispute provoked by the United States, but the plan was opposed by many members of Congress, representatives of agricultural associations and farmers, who urged the Trump administration to end trade disputes with other economies as soon as possible.
For Republican members of Congress who have always opposed large-scale government subsidies, this agricultural subsidy plan is obviously unacceptable. Senator Ben Sass, Republican of Nebraska, said that the current trade war has hit American farmers hard, and the White House plan is to spend $12 billion on a pair of "golden crutches". He pointed out that American farmers do not want to be subsidized and suffer losses at the same time, but hope that their products can be used all over the world. They believe that "the Trump administration’s tariff and rescue plan will not make the United States become greater, but let the United States return to 1929 (the beginning of the Great Depression)."
Trade wars that disrupt American trade policy and hinder foreign investment have not been supported by local States in the United States. At the annual meeting of the National Governors Association held in New Mexico, USA on July 19th, several governors said that the trade policy implemented by the Trump administration was disrupting the market of bulk agricultural products and bringing troubles to foreign investors. The Governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, said that out of concern about the US-China trade relations, he was sending the state’s economic officials to visit China and hold talks with Chinese enterprises investing in Arkansas. He hopes to find a solution quickly to prevent tariff war from escalating.
Republican candidates complain about the Trump administration.
Not only has the agricultural subsidy plan met with the shaking heads of American farmers, but in recent months, the Trump administration has successively announced the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum products from many countries and China goods worth tens of billions of dollars, which has also been widely opposed at home and abroad.
Recently, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, an American think tank, published an article saying that the Trump administration’s trade war has triggered retaliatory measures by Canada, Mexico, the European Union and China. The USDA estimates that these countermeasures will cause about $11 billion in losses to American agricultural products. These four economies account for 61% of US merchandise exports. If Trump escalates the trade war again and imposes tariffs on China goods worth $200 billion, American overseas sales and domestic output will drop sharply again, and the unemployment rate will also rise sharply.
Chad Bowen, a senior researcher from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and others recently wrote that Trump’s tariffs on China’s goods worth $200 billion have dealt a huge blow to American consumers. Billions of imported consumer goods, including computers, furniture, lamps and suitcases, have been hit, and the budget expenditure of American families will have to be increased. The rise in commodity prices has made it more difficult for traditional students of American families to go back to school to shop and decorate their houses. The American media hit the nail on the head and pointed out that "the trade war launched by Trump dragged American consumers into the water".
Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said at the hearing held by the Financial Institutions Committee of the House of Representatives on July 18th that American enterprises were increasingly worried about tariffs, and many enterprises were hurt by tariffs. Powell said that protectionism is harmful to the economy. He said: "The more protectionist an economy is, the weaker its competitiveness and the lower its production efficiency."
As the mid-term elections in the United States approach, the trade war will inevitably become a hot topic. Two senior White House officials said recently that they were receiving complaints from Republican candidates that Trump’s tariff collection led to retaliation from other countries, according to the aksil website. Many officials in the White House have begun to question whether the trade war is a good thing for the Republican Party’s election in the Midwest.
It is impossible for the United States to launch a trade war.
In addition to domestic pressure, the United States is also facing a lot of external pressure. According to Kyodo News, at the recent meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso criticized the US trade policy of imposing tariffs on imported goods from many countries, and almost all countries expressed concern about the trade frictions intensified under the tough policy of the United States. According to Bloomberg News, officials from Germany, Japan and South Korea rejected Trump’s unilateralist stance at this meeting. Daniel M. Minelle, deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank, said that "US President Trump’s fiery remarks are not only a threat, but also have begun to affect the real economy".
Some American experts said that Trump seems to think that American trading partners will succumb to American pressure and finally have to make concessions, but he will not fail to understand the truth of "killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred". The International Monetary Fund warned on the 21st that the trade war between the United States, China and Europe may cause serious damage to the global economy, and in the worst case, the global economic growth rate will be reduced by 0.5%.
According to the estimate of Moody’s Analytics, if the United States levies taxes on imported cars and most China goods, and the other side retaliates, the economic growth rate of the United States may be reduced by 0.5% by the middle of 2019. At the same time, 700,000 jobs will be lost in the United States.
Today, when the global economy is highly dependent, it is impossible for the United States to launch a trade war.
(Washington, July 27 th, our reporter in Washington, Tang Xianying)




