Thread by @Trinhnomics

If you want to think about trade war, @UNCTAD has a great paper on it (an authority on investment & trade). Here are a few charts:

1) The US is amongst the least restrictive in terms of tariffs for imports vs. Asia (India is very) & Latam & Africa. The EU has low tariffs but...

@UNCTAD 2) Although the EU has low tariffs, it has plenty of technical non-tariff barriers (China also has plenty and so do Brazil). Key to think about US-China trade-war and why Trump (and increasingly a bipartisan efforts) want to level the playing field.

@UNCTAD 3) Even before the escalated US-China trade-war in 2018, keep in mind that trade defence measures have been robust by the US (and the EU) towards China. Think washing machine (the US & the EU has tariffs/anti-dumping measures as it does not recognize China as a market econ).

@UNCTAD 4) Why is market eco status important? Well, it means that prices in the economy are determined by the market & not the state, which interferes via subsidies. B/C the state is powerful & can outlast companies & can absorb losses. Can support "dumping" to gain global market share.

@UNCTAD 5) Anti-dumping measures are lobbied against products coming from govs that are not considered market economy. How? The defending country can pick any random country as a benchmark for market production cost & then label "anti-dumping" if the price<costs.

@UNCTAD 6) This is why the US is against China getting "market economy" status by the WTO (and surely by the EU). It was close from getting it but the trade-war effort is a way to cement the fact that China is not recognized as a market economy status. A key concept in global trade & law

@UNCTAD Here is the link to the paper. Only 1-3 are from the paper and 4-6 are my own rants. International trade is very interesting. Read as much as you can from free resources such as UNCTAD. They have a team of people looking at this stuff.

unctad.org/en/Publication…