Economist: Trade spats due to misunderstandings

Nations must drop confrontational attitude and find acceptable solutions

Misunderstandings, especially at the governmental level, have been the root cause of the trade disputes between China and the United States, a leading economist said.

Trade disputes could be resolved if governments drop their confrontational approach vis-a-vis one another and find amicable solutions that are acceptable to all stakeholders, said Paul Romer, who won last year's Nobel Prize in economic sciences for integrating technological innovation into long-run macroeconomic analysis.