Singaporean scholar urges Biden to end Trump's trade war with China

SINGAPORE - US President Joe Biden's administration should end the trade war with China initiated by former US President Donald Trump, a renowned Singaporean scholar recently said.

Referring to the US trade war with China as a complete failure, Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, said in an article published Saturday on The Straits Times that there was a strong consensus that Trump's trade war against China hadn't helped American workers or consumers.

The trade war neither reduced the trade deficit, nor helped the US economy, Mahbubani said in the article, stressing that the tariffs and sanctions have not only failed to achieve their aims, but also undermined America's long-term interests in East Asia.

For the United States, keeping the trade sanctions and tariffs on China in place is like shooting oneself in the foot, according to the Singaporean scholar.

If the Biden administration wanted to formulate its trade and economic policies towards China, on the basis of the interest of American workers and consumers, and indeed to give a sharp boost to the American economy ... "it should immediately and unconditionally lift all self-defeating trade sanctions and tariffs on China," Mahbubani said.