2 weeks Ago By Charlie Jones
The post-WWII world order is on its 'last legs' , an expert has warned, as Trump's tariffs drive long-term allies away from the US and towards China. This comes as Beijing countered Trump’s across-the-board tariffs on Chinese products with tariffs on select US imports, as well as announcing an antitrust investigation into Google and other trade measures. Trump initially declared an economic emergency to place duties of 10 per cent on all imports from China.
Tariffs were also threatened against Canada and Mexico but were delayed following talks with the respective countries. Speaking to the Mirror.com, Professor Inderjeet Parmar, head of the Department of International Politics at City, University of London, explained how the looming trade war shows how the post-WWII world order of free-trade and multilateralism is coming to an end.
He also warned that this process comes with dangers that are 'more severe than they have been for many decades.' U.S.
tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico were set to go into effect Tuesday before Trump agreed to a 30-day pause as the two countries acted to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking. He said: "There’s been a long term adjustment by US allies to expect less from the US than traditionally; the new tariffs are a reminder that this is a process that’s durable and likely to last some years yet. Hence, we can probably look forward to new alignments and realignments among the major economic powers and others, greater domestic investment to offset costs of selling to the US, and a more divided nationalistic world.
"The post-1945 world order of Bretton Woods would appear now to be on its last legs, a process that preceded Trump, was intensified by him, and will outlast his term of office. The crisis of world order and the dangers that accompany it are now more severe than they have been for many decades." China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.
S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday. “The U.
S.’s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,” the State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement. “It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.
S.” China and the U.S.
had engaged in a trade war in 2018 when Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods and China responded in kind. This time, analysts said, China is much better prepared to counter, with the government announcing a slew of measures that cut across different sectors of the economy, from energy to individual U.S.
companies. Professor Parmar continued: "Trump is now hyper-intensifying US economic power and weaponising its massive market for global goods and services. This suggests a long term shift in US strategy away from a freer trade approach via multilateral organisations towards bilateral transactionalism, regardless of whether a country is its ally or strategic adversary.
DAILY NEWSLETTER: Sign up here to get the latest news and updates from the Mirror US straight to your inbox with our FREE newsletter. "This will certainly sour relations, lead to tit-for-tat tariffs, and probably impact global economic growth. However, it may well lead to greater domestic investment by major economies too which may boost employment.
But globally, this tariff war – which is what it is – adds to great power competition and may be a recipe for greater levels of economic and other conflicts." As well as energy and cars, China announced export controls on several elements critical to the production of modern high-tech products. They include tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, many of which are designated as critical minerals by the U.
S. Geological Survey, meaning they are essential to U.S.
economic or national security that have supply chains vulnerable to disruption. The export controls are in addition to ones China placed in December on key elements such as gallium. “They have a much more developed export control regime,” Philip Luck, an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former State Department official, said at a panel discussion on Monday.
“We depend on them for a lot of critical minerals: gallium, germanium, graphite, a host of others,” he said. “So ..
. they could put some significant harm on our economy.”.
