Other countries are rising to the challenge: Rosa Balfour on impact of US trade war

Speaking to ANI about the impacts of the US tariffs at the sidelines of the Carnegie Global Tech Summit, Carnegie Europe Director, Rosa Balfour said, "The US has unleashed a global trade war, then it backed down a little, and now it's giving it a three-month pause. We need to see what the next steps will be. But what I'm seeing happening is that with the US intent on upending the global economy, other countries and large blocs are actually working to make sure they have a web of relationships that can preserve global trade in the face of one country that is intent on destroying it or intent on isolating itself from the global economy."

She further added, "So it's not entirely clear where the US is going in all this, but we are seeing that other countries are actually working towards finding alternative ways around this."

She gave the example of the EU-MERCOSUR trade agreement, which is the trade agreement between EU and latin American countries and noted if such agreements can be worked with countries that have a large population, then "other countries can work this out, perhaps there'll be an alternative model to upending the global economy."

On being asked if the coming together of major economies can result in the sidelining of the US, Rosa Balfour said, "It's hard to think of the US being sidelined because of the sheer size of its economy. But ultimately, what has been happening over the past few days seems like self-defeating suicidal policies, and whether they have an actual strategy is really not apparent. So something needs to be done to preserve the global trading system."

She said that the global trading system had seen several setbacks in recent times, "Because of the rise of powers that are not respecting the rules, conflict and war, international sanctions."

She underscored, "What is important is to see that other countries are rising to the challenge, trying to preserve what there is, which potentially could lead to trying to improve what there is."

Noting that, as it is the early days, in order to assess the impact of the trade war, she said, "There will be costs to be paid. Let's not be naive about this, and the simple fact that the United States has been a hegemon so far means that it still has a lot of power. If the US decides to end that role as a hegemonic and responsible power in the global system, it's going to have repercussions. So whatever happens, whether we have the ability to push back or not, it will come at a cost."

Earlier, speaking during the panel discussion "Tariffied World: T minus" at the Global Tech Summit on Saturday, Rosa Balfour said that the European Union has the tools to respond to the trade war and has been preparing the toolbox for several months. She said that Europe could reach out to other nations if there was a trade war between the US and China.

On Friday, China hit back at the latest US tariffs by imposing 125 per cent tariffs on imports of all US goods. Chinese official Xinhua agency cited the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council to state that it will lift the additional tariffs on products imported from the US to 125 per cent from 84 per cent, effective from April 12. China has also filed a lawsuit with the WTO following the latest US tariff hikes, the Chinese commerce ministry said as per a report in the official Xinhua Agency.

The current US tariffs on Chinese imports include a 145 per cent duty on all products imported from China, according to the White House. On April 10, Trump paused most of the tariffs for 90 days, but for China, the tariffs were hiked to 145 per cent.