What can china do in this situation ?
What does mexico export to China? Push comes to shove, wouldn't they choose the US to save themselves.
Say what you want about trump, but he has been able to twist and bully his way to get what he wants, at the detriment of other countries.
People thought his tariffs would usher in the great depression like the 1930s, but would it do so if you force other counties not to retaliate?
Time will tell. One thing is for sure, with all these tariffs, made in America is getting more expensive, probably more so than what is being offset by making other countries take off tariffs on US goods, so I doubt US will export much. They are, in some ways, sacrificing the domestics economy for the small manufacturing sector.
Yes, it will to an extent, at least for the US, as it'll have similar ultimate effect as the tariffs in the 1930s.
There are differences of course, the key being that rather than exporting to each other, these days it's mostly countries exporting to the US. The thought in the US is then they can levy tariffs on other nations without fearing for retaliation, unlike the 1930s. However, what people don't seem to realize is that unlike the 1930s, this also means a lack of an export industry or industry in general in the US, which in turn means that the US is also far more
dependent on imports than in the 30s.
As such, whereas back then if the US could levy tariffs without retaliation it would be of great benefit to Americans as domestic industries would be able to absorb the extra business, thus boosting domestic industries while keeping prices down for domestic consumers, there are no such domestic industries this time around for that to happen. This is why China's retaliation was effective. It wasn't because of the tariffs China placed on American goods, it was because it didn't give Trump an off ramp to reduce the tariffs he placed himself on Chinese goods that the Americans are dependent on.
In other words, these days, you don't need retaliation for tariffs to damage the American economy. Ultimately, tariffs today serve the same ultimate purpose as tariffs of the 30s, it increases cost for businesses and consumers and decreases efficiency of the economies involved.