Trade friction hurting US economy: Western media

World
Europe

01:06

Beijing has announced a new round of tariff reduction on consumer products, covering nearly 15,000 tax categories. This is the fourth such move after President Xi Jinping pledged to lower tariffs during the Boao Forum for Asia in April.

The US has long accused China of unfair trade practices, largely based on import tariff differences between the two nations. However, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said the mutual benefit principle means overall reciprocity and balance of interests in market openings across all industries – that's instead of just imposing the same amount of duties on each other's goods.

While US President Donald Trump is still playing number games by imposing tariffs amid growing tension between Washington and Beijing, several Western media outlets have reported that the US consumption, exports and investments are being hurt by the ongoing trade friction.

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The Los Angeles Times reported that retailers, manufactures and farmers may suspend their investments in new projects. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune said that a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports means an extra 300 US dollars in annual expenses for low-income families on average.

On the macroeconomic side, US industrial association data showed that almost 800,000 American and Chinese jobs, 360,000 of which in high-tech sector, would be lost if the US and China both imposed tariffs on 150 billion US dollars of goods, according to Reuters.

Deutsche Bank and the European Central Bank noted that trade disputes will cause the US inflation to rise half a percent and slow the country's economy two percentage points next year if American tariffs trigger retaliatory measures from US trading partners.

In terms of economic prospects, CBS quoted a report by Moody's as saying that the US economic growth rate has reached its peak.