评论
打印
A China trade war could escalate quickly
中美贸易战或迅速升级
By Justin Worland
文/贾斯汀·沃德兰
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S LOOMING TRADE WAR with China ratcheted up so quickly, you might have missed it.
特朗普总统向中国发动贸易战之日在即，目前形势变化颇为迅速，稍不留神你可能就已错过一场好戏。
On June 15, Trump announced tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports.
6月15日，特朗普宣布对从中国进口的价值500亿美元的商品征收关税。
Within minutes, China responded in kind, targeting a range of goods from soybeans to electric vehicles,
几分钟后，中方便以其人之道还治其人之身，宣布对从大豆到电动汽车的一系列美国进口商品征收关税，
prompting Trump three days later to order his trade office to find an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to target.
致使特朗普在三天后命令其贸易办公室筛选出另外一批价值2000亿美元的中国商品作为关税征收对象。
Pre-emptively, Trump said he would be willing to bring the total value of Chinese goods targeted for tariffs to $450 billion.
特朗普先发制人地表示，他会很乐意将征收关税的中国商品的价值总额提高到4500亿美元。
“We have to,” Trump told reporters as he rolled out the initial round.
“没办法，”特朗普在推出首轮征收关税政策时告诉记者。
“We’ve been treated very unfairly.”
“我们受到了颇不公平的待遇。”
For Trump, who has asserted that trade wars are “easy to win,”
在曾经断言贸易战“轻而易举就能打赢”的特朗普看来，
the escalating tariffs represent the fulfilment of a campaign promise
日益升级的中美贸易战恰好代表着他在兑现2016年大选时他曾许下的，
to crack down on Beijing and reduce the U.S. trade deficit in order to support American jobs.
打击北京，缩减美国贸易赤字，重振国内就业市场的承诺。
But economists, business leaders and trade experts on both sides of the aisle have cried foul,
然而，国会两党的经济学家，商界领袖和贸易专家不约而同地抱怨连连，
arguing that trade wars are a dangerous game that could hurt the economy at home and globally.
声称贸易战是一场危险的游戏，不仅会损害国内经济，还会损害全球经济。
The prospect of a trade war is particularly dangerous when it comes to China, the U.S.’s largest goods-trading partner.
同中国发生贸易战将尤为危险，因中国是美国最大的贸易合作伙伴。
Products from the country are integrated into global supply chains,
该国的产品已经融入全球供应链，
and the U.S. sends it billions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products, vehicles and machinery each year.
此外，美国每年都向中国输出了价值数十亿美元的农产品、汽车和机械设备。
“China has a fairly predictable pattern of responding immediately and with pretty stiff tariffs,”
“中国面对贸易战的反应是有很强的可预见性的，那就是迅速的反应，并且是相当高的关税政策。”
says Ron Kirk, who was the U.S. Trade Representative under President Obama.
曾在奥巴马执政期间担任美国贸易代表的罗恩·柯克说道。
“Whenever you get in this tit-for-tat escalation and retaliations, it generally is not so good.”
“无论何时陷入这种针锋相对的升级和报复争端之中，结果都不会很好看。”
Most economists generally say tariffs are the wrong way to tackle the issue
经济学家大多表示关税并非正确的解决之道，
and instead advocate for bringing China to the table with pressure from free-trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, from which Trump withdrew the U.S. last year.
他们主张借助跨太平洋伙伴关系——去年，特朗普刚宣布美国退出这一协定——之类的自由贸易协定引导中国走上谈判桌。
The decisive rollout of this latest set of actions left little opportunity for discussion or compromise,
最近，在特朗普一系列果断行动的作用下，中美双方展开讨论或让步的机会已经接近于零，
and the fast-moving nature of the back-and-forth means it will be difficult to halt.
这场拉锯战的瞬息万变也意味着它已经很难刹住车。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
