As part of the ‘phase one’ trade deal, Beijing on Tuesday issued a new list of US products to be exempt from trade tariffs. This came as the US threatened to terminate the deal if China fails to meet its purchase commitments.
RT’s Boom Bust is joined by Todd Horwitz of Bubba Trading and the CEO of Transformity Research Tobin Smith to talk about the possibility of ‘phase two’ and which of the two countries is best positioned when it comes to trade deals.
China will not adhere to this deal, says Horwitz, noting “they’ve already got the WHO and the WTO trying to lean their way, yet they can’t win.”
The US can pull out, and China needs the US more than the US needs China, he says. “We [US – Ed.] can exist without them; we don’t need them as part of our economy.”
Smith disagrees, pointing out that China is going to have four percent GDP growth while the US will have negative eight percent.
According to Horwitz, this is “rhetoric” because China is in trouble and has more issues than the US, “they do need food and a lot of things that they are not able to get.” He adds that the United States is China’s “biggest customer who buys more products than anybody else.”
“Strategically, China needs our electronics as much as they need our food,” Smith says.
“Their move is: build the fence now, and when a new president comes in, they start again. That’s classic Chinese,” he adds.
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