Fair competition, not confrontation required
No one emerges winner in a trade war. Instead, its adverse effects spill across borders. Indeed, the forecast for Asia is a drop in economic growth rate as the US-China trade conflict threatens to inflict more collateral damage on the region's export-reliant economies. An Asian Development Bank report issued on Wednesday said the region's growth will drop from 6.0 percent this year to 5.8 percent in 2019.
This is not the first time international institutions have sounded the alarm over the potential economic damage a trade war between the world's two largest economies can do to the global economy. Earlier, the International Monetary Fund warned the world economy could lose $430 billion by 2020 if the Sino-US trade conflict escalates.
Yet such warnings have fallen on the deaf ears of US President Donald Trump, who went ahead and imposed additional tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports on Monday, forcing China to respond by levying tariffs on $60 billion of US goods.
