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Trump’s trade war with China is benefitting China

Posted by / November 19, 2018

Soren Skou is the chief executive of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S. That probably means nothing to you, but it’s significant. A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is  the world’s largest container-shipping company. As the CEO, he has access to all the data, and he can tell how much is coming and going from different countries.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Skou said that “Chinese exports to the U.S. actually grew 5-10 percent last quarter. Meanwhile, U.S. exports to China fell by 25-30 percent.” In other words, the trade deficit is getting worse, not better. Skou believes there are two reasons for this: “Firstly, the U.S. economy is doing well so consumers there have more money to spend on imports, he said. Secondly, a lot of the really big U.S. companies are hoarding Chinese imports to buy as much as possible before tariffs kick in, he said.” To clarify the second point, basically large companies like Nike and Wal-Mart are importing as much raw materials as they can before Trump’s tariffs kick in.

Skou goes on to explain that Trump has very little influence of what American companies do. Meanwhile, Chinese companies are much more willing to align their actions with Beijing’s policy goals.

Skou’s interview is part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that Trump’s economic policies are not benefitting the people he said they would. In a piece written for the Washington Posta professor of finance, real estate, and law offered statistical analyses suggesting that Trump’s promises to even the wealth gap between red and blue counties have fallen flat. In terms of housing prices, “the larger the Trump electorate and the larger the degree of Trump support, the worse the county’s economic performance.” Trump-supporting counties did see slightly more job growth than Clinton-supporting counties, but Trump counties barely grew more than 1%.

What’s the upshot? Trump, like every politician in the history of politics, hasn’t kept his promises. There’s nothing new under the sun, and there’s something strangely comforting about that.

More about politics.

Comments are off for this post.

  • Trump always seems to get things going the other way that he wants them to! Overall, great read!