The ship that lost the race against the trade war

As the deadline for the United States to impose tariffs on Chinese products and Beijing fight back, the media of the Asian giant they focused on a boat: the Pegasus Peak

Loaded with American soy, the boat ran against time to reach Dalian port before the 25% crowding that the government of Xi Jinping was going to respond to begin to apply. the rates imposed by Donald Trump.

In Chinese social networks, Pegasus Peak caused fury. He was among the most talked about Weibo, the local version of Twitter, surpbading even the World Cup. Thousands of users sent encouragement to the ship to arrive before the start of charges

"Good luck brother", "you are not a soybean" and other messages were recorded on the network, according to a New York Times compilation. 19659003] But Peak Pegasus did not do it. According to Bloomberg data, he arrived at his destination around 17:00 in the afternoon in Beijing. By then, Washington had already imposed the first tariff package (at noon in China, while it was midnight in the US) and Beijing had already reacted.

The ship became a symbol of the race against the trade war, with the Asian markets registering several declines as investors prepared for the dispute.

American soy is at the center of Chinese strategy: it is the world's biggest buyer and produces in key states for Trump's political survival.

With tariffs already in place, the trade war between the two largest economies on the planet is in full swing. The United States threatens to expand the list of taxable goods from 34 billion US dollars today to more than 500 billion US dollars, which would cover all imports from the Asian giant.

Beijing, for its part, promised to respond with the same intensity, although, since it buys fewer products from the world's largest economy, it should use other weapons, such as strengthening regulations against US companies present in the country or the installation of administrative bottlenecks.