Mexico was normalized. Canada was normalized. But China? I am not sure what will happen as China decides to retaliate over the tariff imposed by the US Government: “China has retaliated against the United States after President Donald Trump imposed a fresh 10% tariff on Chinese imports, reigniting a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. In an immediate countermeasure announced on February 4, China’s finance ministry unveiled a package of tariffs targeting a range of US goods, marking a sharp escalation in economic tensions.”
But I have one side note for Trump and that is simple: you can empower some of these countries to activate “option B” when for decades they have never considered any alternative. For example, Canada may not see China as a friend but there is a way it could be pushed into crosshairs that it would expand its options.
Nigeria disconnected its land neighbours in a mindless policy, and rerouted trade routes ever since. That decision scaled poverty across Nigerian cities and most of those countries have moved beyond Nigeria. Before that land border closure, Onitsha was the core market for many Nigerian neighbours as the largest open market in West Africa. But after the land closure, Onitsha is yet to recover!
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Many small producers in Ibadan, Aba, etc went bankrupt as they lost customers in Cameroon, Togo, Benin Republic, etc. In short, Nigeria ended up achieving one thing: Nigeria made Port of Lome in Togo, a country of less than 10 million, to become the largest port in West Africa, ahead of any port in Nigeria then (Port of Abidjan has overtaken Lome now)! We’re more than 23X the size of Togo.
So, the US should not be overly overconfident as it opens a new chapter for the EU. The UK used to brag that it was feeding Europe. But after BREXIT, across all core metrics, the UK has diminished economically. What does that tell us? Trump and his team should be nuanced on these things because they could kick the world to China just as America did to Panama some decades ago, even though Trump wants to return to doing business with the country now!
China introduced a bevy of its own measures against the U.S. in response to President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods from Tuesday. They include levies on U.S. coal, oil, liquefied natural gas and agricultural products, as well as an antitrust investigation into Google. Trump, who previously called the 10% tariffs on China an “opening salvo,” said he planned to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. The U.S. reached agreements Monday to delay tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
China Retaliates Against Trump’s Tariffs, Imposes 10% and 15% Tariffs on A Range of U.S. Goods
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