Reference Message Network reported on April 26 that the Financial Times website published an article titled "Trump Finds America No Longer Indispensable" on April 24. The author is Alan Betts. Here is an excerpt from the article:

No matter what you think of Scott Beasant, he has become a laughingstock abroad because the US Treasury Secretary insists that all the contradictions in President Trump's arbitrarily imposed tariff policies are logical. Beasant and other US government officials are now running around the world desperately trying to sign dozens of trade agreements. To put it metaphorically: volatile financial markets are pointing a gun at their heads, and we are being asked to believe that this is all part of a clever plan.

Clearly, Trump's strategy is terrible: even what he wants is unclear. However, even a less incompetent administration would struggle. For decades, the leverage the US used to reshape the global trading system—capital flows, advanced technology, and access to its vast consumer market—has relatively weakened compared to China. Former US President Obama once called the US the "indispensable nation." In terms of trade and technology, such a claim is becoming increasingly unrealistic.

During the post-war Marshall Plan, the US established a largely Atlanticist political economy in Western Europe. It not only provided fiscal Marshall aid but also offered opportunities for advanced technology and access to its growing consumer market.

These advantages have disappeared. Relative to China, the US aid budget has been drastically reduced, and so-called government efficiency departments have more or less eliminated their last remnants at USAID.

The US is desperately trying to deprive China of advanced technologies, especially semiconductor technologies. However, due to its inability to match investments by Chinese authorities and enterprises and sending wrong signals to American industries, the US is far behind in many green technologies.

The US is attempting to expand its domestic battery, electric vehicle, and solar production through subsidies and protective tariffs on imported products. Recently, the US announced a massive tariff of up to 3,521% on solar panels from Southeast Asian countries. These measures will never make the US a competitive exporter.

Similarly, in the field of electric vehicles, the US domestic automotive industry, through trade protectionism, leans toward gas-guzzling large pickup trucks that other countries do not want, resulting in low-tech and high-priced electric vehicles that cannot compete overseas.

Trump wants to threaten market access with high tariffs and then demand trade concessions in return for restoring access. All sticks, no carrots. His credibility in permanently imposing high import tariffs depends on fluctuations in financial markets, and his credibility in maintaining low tariffs after reaching an agreement is also highly questionable.

In the poker game of global trade, Trump inherited a deteriorating hand and played it extremely poorly. Beasant and other US officials are in a precarious situation. The US can no longer control global trade through aid, technology, or market access as it did in the past, and Trump's erratic behavior is rapidly increasing the likelihood that the US will lose control altogether.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7497559560551531047/

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