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Expert Says Protectionism Harmful to US, Global Economy

Expert Says Protectionism Harmful to US, Global Economy
Expert Says Protectionism Harmful to US, Global Economy

US trade protectionism will eventually do harm to its own economy and the global economy as a whole, a US expert on China said Tuesday.

Jon R. Taylor, a political science professor at University of St. Thomas based in Houston, told Xinhua that he is concerned about possible US protectionist practices.

“If you are placing import duties on these sorts of things, you are not only detrimental to our economy, you are detrimental to the world economy ultimately. And I think it’s a concern,” he said.

Speaking of putting up barriers for Chinese companies doing business in the United States, Taylor said that will reduce foreign direct investment which is key to the US economy. He believed there is no way to escape globalization. Instead, “you have to engage in economic cooperation.”

The US Commerce Department has launched anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations against imports of large-diameter welded pipes from several countries in the latest trade protectionist move by the Donald Trump administration.

The department said Tuesday in a statement that the investigations, targeting products from Canada, China, Greece, India, South Korea and Turkey, were initiated in response to petitions filed by several American companies.

  Beijing Warns Washington

China on Tuesday called on the United States to restrain the use of trade restrictions. “China is concerned about the US side’s serious trade protectionist tendency in the field of steel products,” said Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau under China’s Ministry of Commerce, in a statement.

Trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies rose again on Tuesday as Beijing accused Washington of “excessive protectionism” after targeting imports of a key chemical from the United States.

The administration of US president has brought a range of commerce cases against China, sparking fears of a trade war.

“China is concerned about the US’s serious trend towards trade protectionism in steel products,” the ministry of commerce said, and “calls on the US to restrain itself from using trade restriction measures”. More than half of the US’s protective tariffs are related to steel, it noted.

Hejun was quoted as saying that “repeated and excessive protectionism” often “brings about a vicious circle”.

The statement followed news late Monday that Beijing had taken aim at imports of a key chemical from the United States. The commerce ministry said it had found dumping of styrene imports from the US, Taiwan and South Korea, in an initial ruling during a continuing trade investigation into the chemical.

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