Hank Paulson: Trade war casts long-term risks on US

World
Europe

The trade war may risk the US long-term pains with reducing investors' interest in the country, said former US treasury secretary Henry Paulson in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.

"The question really is: Is China going to start looking for new markets from where they're going to buy soybean?" Paulson said in the interview, suggesting that China may turn to Brazil or Africa. "Are they going to be concerned that they need to protect themselves if there's another round of tariffs and they need other suppliers?"

"Companies and countries want to do business with the US because we've got reliable, stable economic policies," Paulson said.

"Will investors want the US to be a supplier if they think it is going to come in and break up the supply chain? Is a foreign investor going to come in and build a plant if he's afraid that the US is going to be in the middle of a trade war?" added Paulson.

He has called on the two countries to hold negotiations and said: "This trade war obviously doesn't benefit anyone."