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Townhall
Finance
Repetitive
Stupidity
By Mike Shedlock
Jun 07, 2013
No
one wins a trade war.
Ever. Not countries, not companies, and certainly not consumers. Yet,
here we
go again. People's Daily says China has more cards to play in EU trade
dispute.
China
still has plenty more
cards to play in an increasingly ugly trade dispute with the European
Union,
the official People's Daily newspaper said on Thursday, accusing Europe
of not
realizing that its global power was waning.
The
EU will impose duties
on imports of Chinese solar panels from this week, a move that
infuriated
Beijing despite European attempts to soften the blow with a reduced
rate. China
in response announced on Wednesday its own anti-dumping and
anti-subsidy probe
into imports of wine from the EU.
"We
have set the table
for talks, (yet) there are still plenty of cards we can play," the
newspaper wrote. "China does not want a trade war, but trade
protectionism
cannot but bring about a counter-attack."
A
declining Europe needs to
understand it can no longer laud it over other countries, the paper
added.
"Times
change and
power rises and falls. Still this has not changed the deep-rooted,
haughty
attitudes of certain Europeans," it wrote.
Repetitive
Stupidity
Time
and time again,
politicians place tariffs to "protect" jobs. In turn this provokes
retaliation. This retaliation by China is mild so far. The implied
threat is
tariffs on Airbus or industrial components from Germany.
Chancellor
Merkel
understands this which is precisely why Germany was against the tariffs
on
solar panels, even though a German manufacturer was in play.
I
have talked about this
before. Here is a snip from EU On Collision Course With Germany Over
Tariffs;
Yet Another Reason for UK to Exit EU written May 20, 2013.
Damage
of Tariffs
I
do not believe it is
possible to accurately predict the damage caused by inane tariffs. Much
depends
on how China would respond. But even if China did not respond, there is
no
advantage to artificially forcing up prices…
Read
the rest of the
article at Townhall Finance
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