One of the biggest drivers of the US starting a trade war with China is to 'correct the trade imbalance', that is to say: the US is not happy that China is selling more to the US than it is buying from the US. This is where my confusion comes in: in an open market, isn't buying and selling voluntary actions? A "consumer" (eg China or US) will buy and sell from each other as each wishes. China is buying the amount and types of products it's buying from US based on what it thinks is appropriate for its economy, and vice versa. It's not like anyone puts a gun to anyone's head and says "here, you must buy these from me!" If the US thinks China is selling too much and not buying enough, shouldn't it just reduce the purchase of certain goods from China, and in turn, make its own products more attractive to the Chinese so they'll buy more? Isn't that the right way to correct the trade imbalance? How can one side 'complain' that the other is not buying enough and selling too much? (Heck, if the US thinks China is selling too much cheap goods, then just don't buy them? Just say "hey, you know what, this quarter, we'll buy 20 billion dollars of this good instead of 200 billion, all right?" )
It is very hard for western companies to establish business in China due to many reasons + currency control (lowering) + many other reasons. World is very much open for Chinese companies and goods, but it is not the same way in China
China is a sovereign country, alike US they can set their own rules. If US doesn’t like it they can stop trading with them or buy less.
No, China is a member of World Trade Organization with rules. It benefits a lot from this membership, but does not open its market for other members.
This is one of Trumps biggest achomlishments
United States / England have been putting guns on pretty much every countries heads and forcing them to buy from them. For example many countries have been forced to not buy oil from countries US doesn’t like.
Your logic holds absolutely correct in an open market , however, this world is not an open market. It’s a jungle. And in the jungle the powerful wins. If open market benefits a country , they will push for open market. If it doesn’t they will start a trade war.
And why is their growing fast bad and needs to be stopped? Nobody stopped the growth of England / USA in the past.
Trade imbalance is not so much of an issue IMO. It’s the way Chinese government treats US companies who want to do business in China that is the big imbalance. I’m no Trump fan (far from it) but I’m glad to see Huawei being targeted the way they are. Give them a doze of their own medicine.
Huawei being targeted is a dangerous move since it damages the idea that the US tries to be fair and rules based. This is probably the worst reputational damage the administration has caused the country so far IMO. The tariffs are fine, that's a tool to try and get concessions or reduce imports. It's easy to shoot yourself in the foot if they're not applied carefully though, since people will just relabel Chinese goods and ship them through other countries.
US has played “fair and rules based” for far too long with the Chinese. Now they are gaining on us and surpassed us in many areas. You can’t play fair against someone who isn’t playing by the rules.
What you described is not how China works at all. Nothing free market about a Communist dictatorship.
True. And there is nothing free about a plutocracy either. Isn’t it ? There is no free market. It’s just a jungle.
Well a plutocracy tends to lead towards anti-free-market institutions like the Federal Reserve, so I guess you could make that argument in one sense.
How do you get the US to buys less Chinese goods? Tariffs. Not saying whether the trade war is good or not, but it's trying to do exactly what you mentioned - get US consumers to buy less Chinese goods by increasing prices.
The market is open yes and no. It’s open coz everyone can do trade with any country barring a few. It’s not open coz there is a tariff importing country can charge on the goods imported. If that tariff is high or imbalanced, it’s not really open. How much should the tariff be for each of millions of goods ? It’s subjective and trump thinks it’s not in favor of US. I believe that given I know how MF Chinese are
Trump is a moron. And he thinks China is paying the tariffs. The reason why there is a trade imbalance is way too complex for a Blind post.
As exemplified by your opening line