The US is planning to isolate China through tariff negotiations

The Trump administration plans to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure US trading partners to limit their dealings with China, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.

His idea is to extract commitments from U.S. trading partners to isolate China’s economy in exchange for reductions in trade and tariff barriers imposed by the White House.

US officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship good through their countries and to prevent Chinese firms from setting up shop in their territories to avoid US tariffs.

President Trump has increased tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, while suspending them for 90 days for other countries that had higher tariffs on the US. China has also imposed a 125% tariff on the US, following the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on it. 

Apparently, US officials have already discussed the plan to isolate the Chinese economy with some potential countries. When asked by reporters about Panama deciding not to renew its role in China’s global infrastructure program, Belt and Road Initiative, Trump hinted at the reported strategy and said that he would consider making countries choose between the US and China.

President Trump has long focused on using the leverage of US economic power to get what he wants. We will see if this strategy will be successful in isolating China.