The schism between the US and China has intensified as the Biden administration added to the Trump tariffs on about $US300 billion ($467 billion) of China’s exports, with more targeted sanctions on China’s access to key US technology and that of its allies, which especially, but not exclusively, covers semiconductors, the building blocks of 21st-century technologies.
Loading
None of those trends will be unwound within the forseeable future, which means the world has entered a different phase of globalisation, one where trade in key products and services is dominated by trade within the different blocs.
And as the WTO says, that will lead to higher costs and, potentially, more conflict.
Donald Trump has doubled down on his trade policies, promising to introduce a base tariff of 10 per cent (against the current average rate of 3 per cent) on all imports to the US, even those from America’s closest allies, despite the universal conclusion that the substantial costs of the trade wars and tariffs in his first stint in the White House were paid for by American companies and consumers.
While a second term as president might appear unlikely, given his legal woes and electoral standing, it isn’t impossible.
If the unlikely were to occur, and his universal base tariff were implemented, it would inevitably lead not just to enormous tensions within the current US-led bloc, but inevitably to retaliatory tariffs and a new and destructive global trade war that would also impact geopolitics and America’s position in the world order.
Loading
While the WTO believes talk of deglobalisation is premature, its fragility is highlighted by the potential of a new administration to wreak havoc, and not just to global trade.
As the WTO’s director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in the annual report, the post-World War II economic order was built on the idea that increased trade and economic ties would foster peace and shared prosperity. Countries with close trading relationships are less likely to wage war with each other, she said.
At this point, the view that globalisation is largely intact is borne out by the data, with the WTO saying the value of world merchandise trade rose 12 per cent to $US25.3 trillion last year (partly due to inflation and the increased commodity and fuel prices caused by the war in Ukraine) and the value of the trade in world commercial services increased 15 per cent to $US6.8 trillion.
As noted, however, trade flows are being increasingly driven by trade within blocs rather than within what was previously a free-flowing global system.
Deglobalisation is certainly not in Australia’s interests. If there are to be trade sanctions on China, it is in the interests of this region that they are as few and as targeted to purely national defence and economic security as possible.
That shift in the directions of the flows damages economies with big trade surpluses more than those with trade deficits, and therefore harms economies driven by exports more than those geared to domestic consumption.
That favours the US, with its structural trade deficits, and some European economies but hurts China and Germany, whose economic models are built on exports, along with most developing economies and trading nations like Australia and, indeed, most of the major Asia Pacific economies.
Deglobalisation is, therefore, certainly not in Australia’s interests. If there are to be trade sanctions on China, it is in the interests of this region that they are as few and as targeted to purely national defence and economic security as possible.
The Biden administration has been reviewing the broad Trump sanctions on China’s exports ever since it took office in 2020, acknowledging their cost to the US economy, its companies and its consumers. Domestic politics and the general American suspicions and antipathy towards China, however, appear to have overwhelmed economic rationality.
Even if deglobalisation isn’t yet occurring, and although China’s export volumes and values to the US have held up despite the tariffs and a faltering of its exports generally (they were down 8.8 per cent in August relative to a year earlier), it has been displaced by Mexico this year as America’s major trading partner thanks to friendshoring.
China is the biggest victim of the trends in global trade because despite its efforts to boost consumption, its spluttering economy is still overly exposed to exports, with the relatively recently apparent structural vulnerabilities within its economy.
China’s economy has slowed because it is grappling with high debt levels, a property sector that has collapsed and generated shocks within the vast shadow finance sector and a private sector that has become cautious and defensive as President Xi Jinping has tightened the Communist Party’s control over business activity.
Loading
As a major market as well as the biggest exporter, China’s economic challenges are going to hurt other economies such as Germany, Japan, South Korea and Australia, that either sell into its market or are significant participants in its supply chains.
While the underlying trend in global trade says trade is becoming less global, the shift by China into a lower growth phase will only add to the complexity, geopolitical tensions and instabilities flowing from the shifts that are already occurring to the patterns of worldwide trade.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.