Trump and his trade hawks must be brought down to earth

If US President Donald Trump has finally come to his senses on Wednesday by signing an executive order to reverse his administration's inhuman practice of separating children from their parents illegally for crossing the southern US border, he should also be brought to his senses to stop the tariff war he has initiated with China, and, indeed, the whole world.

The past week is like a replay of April. Disregarding the consensus reached at the recent high-level bilateral talks in Washington and Beijing to end the tariff threats, the Trump administration on June 15 announced a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese exports, with most of the tariffs due to come into effect on July 6. Hours later, China released its retaliatory tariff list on an equal amount of US exports. Trump then escalated the tariff war by directing the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to identify an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese imports for a new 10 percent tariff. China has vowed to fight back with comprehensive measures.

Many believe that the Chinese will be short of retaliatory targets since China exports far more to the United States than US exports to China. But a Bloomberg report suggests that China could punish the vast US investment in China, which would hit companies such as Apple, General Motors, Starbucks and Walmart.