The global trading regime is in great need of change to avert real and potentially destabilising losses resulting from the escalating trade frictions between the United States and China and elsewhere, experts said. The Trump administration has leaned heavily towards unilateralism in addressing what it sees as unacceptable status quo in which the United States has long been taken advantage of by countries around the world, including its allies, in terms of trade and others, defence included. Trump has fired the first shot in this global trade battle by failing to adequately negotiate. Furthermore, China is increasingly singled out as the source of the world’s trade woes. Caught in the cross fire, many U.S. soybean farmers are feeling uneasy about their coming harvest and have contemplated planting other crops for the next season, even though the Trump administration has said it will offer a package of 12 billion U.S. dollars to compensate for their losses. “I do not want government compensation, I want the Chinese market,” said Don Lutz, a farmer in Scandinavia in the state of Wisconsin. In Brazil, the farmers there seem to have benefited from the U.S.-China trade friction, with the price of Brazilian soy beans rising by over 15 percent year on year on expectations of higher demand from China. “In the past season 2017-2018, we extended the sowing for 4 per cent more and we had a good income. For the new cycle, we tried to expand more, up to 7,100 hectares, and getting an increase...
Why global trade is in urgent need of change
Posted on: October 2, 2018
Posted on: October 2, 2018