Trump's commercial war: Vietnam and Mexico win tariffs as US and China lose



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Vietnam and Mexico have emerged as the unexpected winners of the Washington-Beijing trade war, as US and Chinese consumers and producers continue to suffer the effects of tariffs imposed by their respective countries on their products.

The United States and China are struggling with a one – year trade war that has no end. Since March 2018, the two governments have imposed tariffs on products worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

To avoid additional taxes, US and Chinese importers are turning to other countries for their products – and the new economic data gives an idea of ​​the benefits to other countries.

President Donald Trump alongside Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a group of schoolchildren in Hanoi, Vietnam on February 27.
Reuters

Vietnam 's trade surplus with the United States soared by 45.5% from one year to the next in the first quarter of 2019, the Financial Times reported.

The increase in Vietnamese exports to the United States has been particularly strong for goods covered by Trump's tariffs on China, the Financial Times quoted data from the US International Trade Commission as saying. United.

"Vietnamese exports are taking over and they have done so fairly quickly, or there have been some reorientations in Vietnam of Chinese products," said Thomas Costerg, chief economist at Pictet Wealth Management. "For a small country like that, it's pretty awesome."

US imports from Mexico also offset those from China in the past year. After the government of President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods worth $ 16 billion last year, US imports from China decreased by $ 850 million and those from Mexico increased by a similar amount, said the International Monetary Fund on Thursday.

Greg Lovins checks the quality of a soy load.
Scott Olson / Getty Images

China has also reduced imports from the United States following the trade war, with US soybean producers among the hardest hit.

The United States has been one of China's largest soybean suppliers in 2017. However, Beijing has reduced its soybean purchases to the United States by 80% last year due to the trade war and then transferred its activities to Brazil.

These changes go against Trump's assertion last March at the beginning of the trade dispute that "trade wars are good and easy to win".

Trump on Thursday issued a $ 16 billion bailout package for farmers, although he maintained the false claim that Chinese companies would be the first victims of the trade war. Several economic studies have said the opposite.

Read more: According to new IMF study, US companies pay "almost entirely" tariffs on Chinese products, thus completely exploding Trump's justification for trade war

US consumers are victims of Trump's trade war.
Mark Makela / Reuters

US and Chinese consumers are suffering in the form of price hikes and are "undoubtedly the losers" of the trade war, the IMF said in its Thursday article.

US importers also pay "almost entirely" for Trump's tariffs on Chinese products, the IMF said.

Chinese importers are also exposed to Chinese tariffs, but the overall effect is likely to be less important as China imports fewer US goods.

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