Tall tales won’t help US win trade war

White House Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday that both the US and China will suffer when questioned about who would pay the tariffs imposed by the US on Chinese imports in an interview on Fox News. Although he also argued that the effect on the US economy would be modest, his remarks were singled out by the US media for contradicting US President Donald Trump~q~s claim that duties are a good option that would help the US economy. 

白宫经济顾问库德洛12日在被电视记者问到谁将为美国征收的巨额关税买单时，表示“双方都会受到影响”。尽管库德洛说美国经济能够应付这种影响，但他的说法还是被媒体揪住，用来强调他与特朗普总统对关税战的效果做了不同描述。后者一直强调征收关税是一个好的选项，可以帮助美国经济。

The China-US trade war is unprecedented. With everything on the table, Washington is becoming increasingly anxious at seeing no sign of China concessions. The US had hoped China would quickly surrender and didn~q~t psychologically prepare itself for a protracted war. The way the US has opted to mobilize public support is telling untenable stories. For instance, Washington stressed that it could collect $100 billion in tariff revenue and China would pay the tariffs. For the new tariffs, it claimed "only 4 points were paid by the US" and "21 points by China." This is nonsense. 

中美这种规模的贸易战史无前例，华盛顿一边押上了全部赌注，一边眼看着中国没有被压垮妥协的任何迹象，正变得越来越焦躁。华盛顿原本指望速战速决，没有打持久贸易战的集体心理准备，它现在的紧急动员方式是讲一些在常识上根本立不住脚的蒙人说辞。比如白宫反复强调美国一年能征收1000亿美元关税，而且那些钱都是中国付给美国的。最新说法还编出一个数据，说中国支付了25%新征关税的21个百分点，美国只支付了4个百分点。这完全是拍脑门的胡扯。

It~q~s well known that tariffs are paid by US importers and those importers can negotiate with Chinese manufacturers to share some of the burden. Given that the original profits of those Chinese products are quite small, it~q~s hard for American importers to make Chinese manufacturers help and ultimately, the tariffs will largely be passed onto American consumers. 

众所周知，关税要由美国进口商支付，那些进口商可以与中国厂家协商，分摊部分关税，另外一部分通过涨价转嫁给消费者。由于中国出口到美国的产品利润原本就不高，美方进口商让中国厂商分摊关税的能力注定是有限的。这将提高美国消费者对关税的分摊的份额。

The US also claimed that its tariff hikes would force companies to leave China. China itself today is a huge market, the size of which is comparable to, and on the trend to surpass, that of the US. China~q~s development in essence is intended to meet the demands for a better life of more than 1 billion people in the country. The consumption capabilities and market consumption potential driven by demand are what foreign companies value most when they come to China.  

美方还用各国企业将会因美国增加关税纷纷撤离中国来恐吓我们，中国已是与美国规模非常接近的巨大市场，而且趋势将会超过美国。中国发展从本质上说，是要不断满足本国十几亿人民对美好生活的需求，来中国的外国企业首先看重的是这种需求所带动的现实消费能力和它们不断激活的市场消费潜力。 

The White House might as well try to call on American companies such as General Motors, Ford, Apple, McDonald~q~s and Coca-Cola to leave China. Will any of them follow? 

白宫不妨先试着召唤通用、福特、苹果等这些美国大公司离开中国，中国是它们数一数二的产品销售市场，看看白宫能说动它们中的哪一家？

China on Monday announced tariff hikes ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent on $60 billion worth of US goods. This demonstrates China~q~s determination to resolutely strike back against the US tariff moves. We believe China surely will take further countermeasures. 

中国星期一宣布将对约600亿美元原产美国的商品提高加征关税税率，其中约一半税目加征的关税升至25%。这是中国坚决回击美国加征关税措施的决心宣示。我们相信，中国还会有进一步的反制措施出台。

China has plenty of countermeasures. The US tariff moves are very much like spraying bullets. They will cause a lot of self-inflicted harm and are hard to sustain in the long term. China, on the other hand, is going to aim with precision, trying to avoid hurting itself. 

中国的反制工具还有很多，美方是搞大规模加税的扫射，自伤率极高。这种做法很唬人，但长期坚持困难重重。中国接下来要搞的都是瞄准射击，尽量避免自伤。

The Chinese government has been blunt about the difficulties and losses that the trade war will bring to the Chinese economy. This is in sharp contrast to the US government seeking to beautify the trade war. 

对于贸易战会对中国经济造成一些困难和损失，中国政府一直直言不讳，这与美国政府长期美化贸易战形成鲜明对比。

The Chinese side is obviously more realistic while the US is falsifying. This will, to a large extent, influence how the two countries digest the trade war impacts.

就凭这一条，中方就明显更加实事求是，美方则有弄虚作假之嫌。这将在很大程度上影响中美各自消化贸易战冲击的质量。

本文系环球网、环球时报英文网站社评。中文部分有删减。

其他精彩，请戳图片阅读：

声明：该文观点仅代表作者本人，加国头条 属于信息发布平台，加国头条 仅提供信息存储空间服务。