China crisis

The announcement that the US government plans to impose tariffs of 25% on $50 bn of goods imported from China has set the cat amongst the pigeons, with equity markets turning sharply lower and safe havens such as gold gaining ground. But whilst this may look like a simple application of economic nationalism, led by a president who clearly has no appreciation of the damage that he may be about to unleash, it is worth considering the underlying US grievances. First and foremost, the Administration believes that China has gained from the unfair expropriation of US intellectual property and that some form of recompense is required. But this is not only a US problem: Many western governments are beginning to worry about the asymmetries which their companies face in doing business in China – the US is simply the first to take action.

Three weeks ago The Economist, which has long been a cheerleader for global free trade, expressed reservations about the direction in which China is heading. In its view, “the China of Xi Jinping is a great mercantilist dragon under strict Communist Party control, using the power of its vast markets to cow and co-opt capitalist rivals, to bend and break the rules-based order.” The article went on to point out that “Chinese markets are opened only after they have ceased to matter” whilst regulators “take away computers filled with priceless intellectual property and global client lists.” A week later, the Financial Times ran a story headed “Backlash grows over Chinese deals for Germany’s corporate jewels” following the news that Geely has acquired a 10% stake in Daimler which has raised fears that Daimler’s know-how in the field of electronic vehicles will filter back to China without appropriate compensation.

Industrial espionage is not new, of course, and we should remember that some of the earliest examples of such activity involved the transfer of Chinese technological advantages into western hands. For example, in the 1800s China had a monopoly on tea growing until a British botanist, acting on behalf of the East India Company, smuggled tea plants and seeds to India and established an industry whose output eventually eclipsed that of China. But this does not assuage current western concerns that the heavy-handed techniques employed by the Chinese are backed by the government. Whilst western companies have long been required to hand over technological secrets before being allowed to conduct business in the Chinese market, the fear is now that many of China’s major foreign acquisitions have been funded by state-backed institutions. Indeed, the FT reports that the message conveyed by the Geely chairman to the German media, that the company wanted to cooperate with Daimler, was not the one he gave to his home audience which was that the action was designed to “support the growth of the Chinese auto industry” and “serve our national interests.”

Seen in these terms, it is hardly a surprise that the US feels that it needs to take some form of action. But despite Trump’s rhetoric to the contrary, it is hard to believe that the US really wants to embark on a major trade war. The fact that China responded with tariffs on only $3bn of imports from the US suggests that it is not willing to escalate the problem either. In the grand scheme of things, the US actions will have next to zero impact on Chinese GDP. A 25% tariff on $50bn of exports amounts to a total hit of $12.5bn which is insignificant in a Chinese economy whose output is valued at $12 trillion. But it is what comes next that matters.

In assessing the outcomes, I am indebted to some modelling analysis conducted by Bloomberg analysts using the NiGEM global macro model. In its first scenario, Bloomberg assumed that the $50 bn figure becomes a US revenue target to reflect the estimated damage done to the economy by intellectual property theft. But the impact of such an outcome, which is four times more significant than what we believe likely to happen, only costs 0.2% of Chinese GDP by 2020. Bloomberg thus concluded that China would be better off not retaliating because the economic losses resulting from inflation generated by higher import tariffs would exceed this amount. In a second simulation exercise, Bloomberg tried to assess the impact of a 45% tariff on all Chinese imports – a figure that Trump happened to mention on the campaign trail. This resulted in a 0.7% hit to GDP by 2020 which they concluded would “not be disastrous.”

But the real problem comes when the tariff war goes global and pulls in countries other than China. An across-the-board rise of 10% in US import tariffs which is met with a similar response by all the US’s trading partners results in a 0.5% drop in Chinese output but a 0.9% drop for the US. This highlights the self-defeating nature of tariff wars and results from the fact, as Bloomberg pointed out, “the tariffs affect 100% of US trade, but for China and other countries, [they] only impact bilateral trade with the US.”

On the surface, the optimal Chinese response to higher tariffs which in aggregate terms amount to little more than a gnat’s bite, would be to ignore them. Since it continues to grow faster than the US it will – in the not-too-distant future – overtake the US as the world’s largest economy and will be in a position to retaliate more effectively. In any case, there are other ways to respond. China is also the largest holder of US Treasury securities (chart). It could thus tweak the tail of the US by selling Treasuries and put upward pressure on US longer-term interest rates.

But this issue is about more than just economics. This is a tale of two alpha economies demonstrating their political muscle, which runs the risk of miscalculation. Unlike Japan in the 1980s, when the US tried to exert pressure using similar tactics, China is a much more potent economic and political rival. It is also not politically allied with the US in the way that Japan was. I have never subscribed to the idea that China and the US are doomed to fall into the Thucydides Trap. But this is a time for cool heads and as I noted in late-2016, it is at times like these that we will miss the rationality of an Obama.