Comments on U.S.–China Trade Conflict and the Changing Multilateral Trading System: Korea's Perspective

Yunjong Wang, Kyunghee University: As Jin Kyo Suh clearly points out, the U.S.–China trade conflict is much more than tariffs and trade. At the June 2019 G20 summit, U.S. President Trump and China's President Xi Jinping agreed to resume another truce that would be at best only temporary, leaving tariffs frozen at the current level. More possibly, failure to reach a trade deal could set off a much more adverse stage of escalation, ultimately leading to a full scale trade, technology, and cold war in every conceivable dimension. On the trade front, Harry Johnson's terms of trade argument is not simply applicable, because China also imposes retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports to China. Trump's tariffs are just a weapon for a better trade deal that would force China to buy more U.S. goods, reduce China's tariff and non-tariff barriers, and open more financial and service sectors to foreign investors. On...