00:00In the debut episode of Wu Says, Melissa Idris sat down with Professor Emeritus Dr. Wu Wingtai
00:07to unpack the economic shockwaves following the dramatic slashing of tariffs between US and China.
00:13During the session, Dr. Wu offered his candid take on what this move signals for global trade.
00:20Here is a snippet of the conversation.
00:21Well, I knew that the very high tariffs that they had imposed on each other
00:31basically decoupled the two economies.
00:35If it continued, it would completely eliminate trade between the two countries.
00:43And given how closely intermatched they are in production networks,
00:50I cannot see how a sudden rupture like this would not cause extreme pain on both sides.
01:00And the question is, number one, why are they doing this to themselves?
01:06Or rather, why is Donald Trump doing this?
01:09Number one.
01:10And number two, does he think he could get away with it?
01:15And what we see now is a very embarrassing picture for Americans to see Donald Trump
01:25make another unconvincing announcement of victory.
01:30That the Chinese have come to the table and we have got them to lower their tariffs from 125 to 10.
01:40Whereas the Americans, of course, also lowered their tariffs from 145 to 30.
01:47I have to ask you, why would you say that it's unconvincing?
01:52Unconvincing to whom?
01:53I mean, both sides are claiming victory, for sure.
01:56But why is the US unconvincing?
01:59Why is the US's claim to victory not convincing?
02:01Because, well, it is not convincing, largely because it got no concessions out from the Chinese
02:11other than, okay, you lower your gun, I lower my gun.
02:18That, but that is not a victory.
02:24A victory is when the other guy put down his gun and while you still have yours pointed at him.
02:30What it really shows is that China has gotten too big to be bullied.
02:37Catch the full conversation on all Awani International social media accounts at Power Affairs.
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