Can you win a trade war?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
According to US President Donald Trump "trade wars aren't so bad". Recently his government surprised the world by announcing unexpected big increases in import taxes - or tariffs - on steel and aluminium.
Mr Trump believes that this is one way to do something about America's huge trade deficit, which he says stems from the nation being "taken advantage of" by other countries for decades. The US also threatened tariff increases on a huge range of other products, including many from China. The Chinese government responded in kind, raising tariffs on American imports of everything from cars to ginseng.
The row has deeply worried many politicians and business leaders across the world: could this be the start of a new trade war?
But what exactly is a trade war - and is it possible to win one? And what are the implications for the UK if the dispute between the US and China escalates?
CONTRIBUTORS
Dr Marc-William Palen, historian at the University of Exeter and author of The 'Conspiracy' of Free Trade.
Chad Bown, Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC and former White House senior economist.
Dr Jue Wang is an expert on the Chinese economy based at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and an associate fellow on the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House.
Dr Meredith Crowley, lecturer at the University of Cambridge and research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:03.4 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Oronovich. |
| 0:06.7 | Step inside and you and I will get briefed together on the big issues by people who know what they're talking about. |
| 0:13.3 | And do please let us know what you think by writing a review or rating us on iTunes or your podcast provider. |
| 0:19.5 | And if you'd like, please recommend us to anyone you can |
| 0:22.6 | think of, really. If you enjoy this, you might enjoy other editions of the briefing room, |
| 0:27.2 | for example, you might want to listen to the special programme we did in conjunction with the |
| 0:31.5 | bottom line about the future for Europe after Britain leaves the EU next year. |
| 0:36.9 | This week, I'm getting briefed on trade wars. |
| 0:40.1 | What are they? |
| 0:41.1 | And can you win one? |
| 0:42.5 | So take your seat in the briefing room. |
| 0:52.8 | The banner headline from this morning's Financial Times reads, |
| 0:57.0 | Beijing's fighting talk over U.S. trade war sends markets reeling. |
| 1:02.5 | Some people don't think this is a bad thing. |
| 1:05.8 | When we're behind on every single country, trade wars aren't so bad. |
| 1:12.3 | Do you understand what I mean by that? |
| 1:19.2 | When we're down by 30 billion, 40 billion, 60 billion, 100 billion, the trade war hurts them, |
| 1:25.8 | doesn't hurt us. That was Donald Trump speaking last month, after his administration had announced radical increases in import taxes on steel and aluminium. |
| 1:30.4 | And this week, China, on some measures, the world's second biggest economy, announced retaliation. |
| 1:36.8 | So I want to know where this is going. |
| 1:39.5 | What exactly is a trade war? |
... |
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