Reference News Network August 3 report: The U.S. "Washington Post" website on August 1 published an article titled "Trump's Tariffs Have Undermined the Peaceful and Prosperous World Order," authored by the newspaper's columnist Fareed Zakaria. The following is a translated excerpt:

In the storm of tariff threats and trade agreements, Americans have overlooked the bigger picture: major changes are taking place in global affairs. The United States was once a proponent of an open global economy, but now it has implemented the highest average tariff rates in nearly a century, becoming the country with the highest tariffs among major economies.

For 80 years, the U.S. economic and foreign policy has been committed to promoting the removal of trade restrictions and tariffs among countries, but the Trump administration is reversing this policy stance.

The White House repeatedly boasts that President Trump has opened foreign markets for American goods, as if he has pried open previously closed economies. However, according to data from the Brussels Bruegel Institute, before Trump's second term, the average tariff rate imposed by the EU on American goods was 1.35%, while the average tariff rate imposed by the U.S. on EU goods was 1.47%. Even Japan, often seen as highly protectionist, had an average tariff rate of about 3% on American goods, while the U.S. imposed an average tariff rate of about 1.5% on Japanese goods.

We once lived in a world of free trade, where tariffs were so low they could be almost ignored.

The leaders of the "Make America Great Again" movement proudly claimed that Trump "won" his trade wars against the EU, Japan, and South Korea. Indeed, Trump understood that the U.S. had special leverage over these countries due to its market size and the security guarantees it provides to its allies. Therefore, amid rising geopolitical threats, he used this reality to pressure his closest friends and force them to make concessions.

However, viewing these small gains as American victories is a misunderstanding of economics. There are no winners in a trade war. The U.S. is passing on the costs of tariffs to its own consumers, in other words, a regressive tax that hits the poor the hardest. Low-income Americans now pay more at retailers like Costco and Walmart for food and clothes. How can this be considered an American victory?

The most profound impact of these tariffs lies in their ability to change the fundamental structure of the world economy. For decades, countries have been striving to reduce improper government interventions in global markets. The reason why U.S. tech companies were able to learn from and surpass market leaders like Sony and Philips from Japan and the Netherlands in the 1980s and 1990s, and then dominate the world, was largely due to the competitive global market.

The world we are about to face will be entirely different. Companies will have to maneuver around trade rules. They will first ship goods to low-tariff countries and then transfer them to the U.S. Top U.S. companies have already routinely gone to Washington to seek exemptions, special treatment, and preferential treatment.

The U.S. once created a trading world where countries could gain great benefits simply by maintaining peace, and established an ecosystem where countries were economically and geopolitically interdependent and closely connected. This country is now speeding in the opposite direction. (Translated by Xiong Wenyuan)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7534327994325451304/

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