Sophia Busch

Inserted 1 week ago

“The shift from the Trump administration offers a little bit of a clue of its priorities in its tariff policy. You can see the administration is releasing some pressure on markets, releasing some of the pressure on US businesses, so that it can keep the pressure on China high, with possibly the ultimate goal of getting Beijing to the negotiating table for better terms of trade. However, it may be difficult to reach that goal. I think if the current pattern stands, China will continue to retaliate until there starts to be some kind of progress. We've seen Beijing is very comfortable and has plenty of practice with these kind of coercive economic tools beyond just tariffs. You're looking at US companies getting blacklisted, import bans on US agriculture products like poultry and sorghum. I think Beijing is perfectly comfortable and will continue increasing this kind of pressure on the US until there's some kind of give, or at least a willingness to step back down.”

Aje

Assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center