On the eve of a smooth year in power, the Trump administration finally resorted to 'the United States first.' On January 22, U.S. Trade Representative Lethitzer said in a statement that at the ITC's decision to import washing machines and solar energy Trump has already approved the imposition of protective tariffs on these two types of imported products after the battery or panel increase is "an important reason for hurting domestic manufacturers." This is the first time in 15 years that the U.S. government has based on the U.S. "Trade in 1974 Act 201 ", which is both an inevitable choice for the Trump administration to fulfill its own electoral promises and a natural response to the political cycle in the United States.
Since Trump himself has long been a talk show host, he prefers to be a self-expressionist character, so 'America first' has always been his regular show since he took office, and people from all walks of life have been cautious, However, judging from the performance of the Trump administration, there is still no trade policy that has escaped the political cycles of the United States since the 1970s. When the United States last started the 201 clause, that is, when the Bush administration went back upward, Trade Law 1974 Is the bill put forward by the Nixon administration, whose main purpose is to satisfy the election promise. It was also the first U.S. trade peak at that time, and the record of the scale of imports had protected the interests of domestic enterprises in the United States and became the predominant tendencies of the voters. The law of protection became an important means for the Republicans to win the election.Moreover, this legal system was also strengthened during the Republican long term administration in the 1980s. Throughout the 1980s, the U.S. government's enthusiasm for free trade has been declining. Trade policy 'and' fair trade policy 'are mainly proposed at this stage until 1990 On behalf of the United States by the information revolution to achieve economic restructuring industry, in this context, the United States began to re-proposed free trade.
Although the U.S. Department of Commerce announced publicly that China's accession to the WTO has been a mistake recently, the Trump administration and the Republican congressional parliament have also repeatedly issued various calls for tougher treatment of China. However, the 201 reopening of this article can not be said to be specific to China. South Korea is the first to bear the brunt of the decision of the United States International Trade Commission, Whirlpool company is also the main target for Samsung and LG.From the South Korean response, has long been directly to the WTO prosecution, and has won in 2016 The United States finally decided to adopt section 201 tariffs of 20% to 50% on washing machines, arguably the ultimate decision to respond directly to the ROK decision in the form of a trade war. Among the various disputes in the area of trade, the United States has always been Do not talk about the relations between the allies, often the first to take the Allies, the Bush administration started the section 201 fifteen years ago for the Nippon Steel.If the politics of the first access to the Allies is a trade deterrence strategy, then the Trump administration also inherit Sex, and did not reflect its non-formed political parties, do not press the common sense features.
For China, this time the affected industries have been inevitable.But through the WTO mechanism, Chinese enterprises can also counter.However, more noteworthy is that on July 1, to extend the right to trade promotion is coming to an end due to It is noteworthy that the Trump administration will come up with a comprehensive trade protection plan that will begin with the specific areas in which the upcoming mid-term U.S. elections will be held and the North American Free Trade Area rules escalation negotiations will be held next week.
Since last year, the global economy has recovered but global trade has not recovered correspondingly. According to the statistics, the global economy has been recovering steadily for the past five years, but the trade has not recovered with the recovery since World War II, and global trade has been growing at a constant rate Is 1.5 times the global economic growth, the trend of inertia can be said that it is past tense.With the accumulation of global capital, technology accumulation, the proportion of labor in global trade has been greatly weakened.Industrial division of labor regardless of the Depth and breadth are shrinking, brand production and the rise of specialized production, especially the production close to the consumer market has also become an important trend.For those who are accustomed to relying on the labor force, the division of labor through the industrial chain, to gain a competitive advantage in the international market of Chinese enterprises In the future, the international market environment certainly can not be optimistic.Although exports in 2017 have regained growth, structural changes in the international economy are still going on. In addition to the trade protectionism in the U.S. political cycle, the future export situation will not be optimistic For Chinese companies, they are able to grasp new market needs, especially in overseas markets And domestic consumer demand to upgrade is very important, but how to achieve industrial upgrading, from the production to branding, then it should be a more immediate problem.
