appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Robert Delaney

As of Sunday evening US Eastern Time, when this piece was being drafted, US President Donald Trump suggested that he is indeed considering a new sectoral tariff regime on smartphones, computers and other electronics that our lives depend on.
This was the latest development, not long after US Customs and Border Protection uploaded a bulletin past 10pm on Friday night, notifying anyone who might have been refreshing the agency’s site at that hour that those products would be exempt from Trump “Liberation Day” tariffs.
If you’re heavily invested in Apple, you might have been ecstatic when you read the news about the exclusion and perhaps bought another whack of shares in the maker of mostly made-in-China iPhones. And if you did, you surely would have been miffed to learn that Apple’s marquee product could still face some level of tariff that may – or may not – be unveiled this week.
Keep in mind that all of this happened after investors started dumping US Treasury bonds at a time when these instruments should have been seen as a safe haven; it was during that melee that Trump announced his 90-day pause on the Liberation Day tariffs.
Each of these twists and turns has been chalked up to the supposedly ruthless attempts by America’s friends and foes alike, during many US administrations, to exploit the country.
However, what Trump leaves out is that these decades of alleged scheming by America’s trade partners have clearly failed, considering how much others have envied the US’ economy and technological innovation. The United States’ economic dominance has been in place for so many decades that many people alive today have only known such a reality. Washington has dictated the rules for just as long, enforcing them with the power of its currency.

Trump and the hardliners in his cabinet are right to be worried that Chinese companies have managed to muscle in on America’s global economic and military dominance. China’s advances in the most important industries of this century – such as artificial intelligence and green technologies, and the supply chains that support them – threaten the American exceptionalism that has attracted the world’s brightest and most ambitious innovators.
Former US president Joe Biden’s many orders restricting advanced technology exports to China failed to keep America’s lead on this front intact and might even have hastened the country’s vault to the technological forefront.
For anyone concerned about China’s growing global market share in electric vehicles and other products that consumers want worldwide – and no one should be more concerned than Trump if he is indeed a true American patriot – more action is needed.
But forget about carrots and sticks. Trump, in his inimitable form, has stepped up with a tariff bazooka aimed at allies, adversaries, investors and penguins – just about everyone except Russian President Vladimir Putin.

His shots have blown a hole in the course of world history by undermining the transatlantic alliance that kept the US and countries that were part of it safe and wealthy. Not even the sharpest analysts would have imagined the hostility that he has directed at Canada. That includes a gross mischaracterisation of the trade relationship that has served to expand the North American market, making it more attractive to investors.
The White House says that more than 75 countries are looking to negotiate new trade deals. If this is true, Trump will be able to take dozens of victory laps, but what does he think trade officials in Brussels, Ottawa and Tokyo will be doing to prepare for Trump’s next onslaught? Washington won’t be present in those negotiations.
While Biden failed on the measures aimed directly at China, no one has been able to launch a credible attack on his efforts to bring a broad coalition of countries into frameworks, partnerships and alliances that served to counter Beijing, even if that intent was not explicitly stated.


Less than a year into Biden’s presidency, Nato – the world’s most powerful military alliance – said China was presenting “systemic challenges”, in a statement that vowed to counter Beijing’s rise. Around the same time, the Group of Seven took perhaps its most forceful stand in decades to call out China on human rights and trade issues.
The former president built a runway for more coordinated international pressure on China. Had the current president used it, he would not need to rely solely on a trade war gambit that promises to inflict more pain on investors.
Robert Delaney is the Post’s North America bureau chief


US, China agree AI dialogue ahead of Trump-Xi summit

Asia investors demand AI revenue proof as focus shifts from exposure to earnings: BofA

Rising toll of US-China trade, tech curbs in focus ahead of Xi-Trump summit

Why a hawkish US Fed won’t derail Hong Kong’s property recovery

United States

Tariff flip-flops and why Trump’s attack on China is misguided

A trader facepalms on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, on April 4. Photo: AFP

Shoppers browse at an Apple store in New York, on April 4. Photo: EPA-EFE

US President Donald Trump signs an executive order after talking about reciprocal tariffs at the White House in Washington, on April 2. Photo: AFP

Trump has lit a fire under the global search for a dollar alternative

US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (second from right) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick look on in the Oval Office of the White House on April 9. Photo: AFP 

Trump’s tariffs could mean saying goodbye to US dollar profits

A worker at a currency exchange shop in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, counts US dollars on April 9 after US President Donald Trump said he would temporarily lower new tariffs on many countries, but not China. Photo: Reuters

US President Donald Trump looks on as military strikes are launched against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, at an unspecified location in this handout image released March 15. Photo: White House/Reuters

Why Trump’s vision of US-made iPhones is likely to remain a dream

Apple is unlikely to move iPhone production to the US in the foreseeable future for a variety of reasons. Photo: AFP

An iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China. Photo: Weibo

Tata Electronics makes iPhone components in India. Photo: Reuters

Opinion

World Opinion

News

World

Economy, Trade & Business

China

Economy

Global Economy

Business

China Business

Trump wants to counter China’s challenge to US dominance but his approach has only served to undermine allies while spooking investors


Trump wants to counter China’s challenge to US dominance but his approach has only served to undermine allies while spooking investors.


Donald Trump

US-China trade war

Vladimir Putin

Trade

China tariffs

US-China relations

China trade

US-ally trade wars

Apple

Donald Trump’s China policy

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

On Balance

Tariff flip-flops and why Trump’s attack on China is misguided

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Trump wants to counter China’s challenge to US dominance but his approach has only served to undermine allies while spooking investors

Trump wants to counter China’s challenge to US dominance but his approach has only served to undermine allies while spooking investors