Trump's tariff measures will depress investment, increase uncertainty: expert

The U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff measures will only depress investment and create more uncertainty, an American political and economic affairs expert said in Beijing.

On Friday, Trump said he is open to negotiating with countries seeking to avoid U.S. tariffs but emphasized that talks will only begin after April 2, possibly after the announcement of additional tariffs.

Einar Tangen, a senior fellow at the Beijing-based think tank Taihe Institute, pointed out that Trump is using tariffs as bargaining chips to threaten other countries, in a Skype interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Sunday.

"How many years have we heard the narrative that you cannot depend on China? That they'll use their economic heft to somehow corner you. Now it appears it's the U.S. that is the real danger,” said Tangen. “Trump's tactics have remained the same, but the world has changed. Trump is playing poker collectively, and his opponents have better cards. If they call his bluff, it's going to be over for him. Taking on the entire world was a mistake. Bullies usually focus on weaker opponents, using them as examples to frighten others."

Starting with steel, aluminum, and cars, and potentially extending to pharmaceuticals and wines, Trump claims he will secure all possible trade advantages for the U.S. The president argued that these tariffs would encourage more production to relocate to the U.S., generate new government revenue, and help reduce the national debt.

Tangen believes Trump's trade actions are a form of bluffing and will ultimately harm the U.S. economy and increase global uncertainty.

"He is bluffing. What he's doing is taking money out of American consumers' pockets, and he thinks he can dole it back to them, and they'll be somehow thankful. The U.S. has vulnerabilities in terms of inflation and collective tariff retaliation. Trump is taking money from one side, his own taxpayers, and then he thinks he can give it back to them as tariffs and that this will somehow be welcome. His effort to control the economy and reindustrialize America will only depress investment and create more uncertainty," said the senior fellow.

Trump's tariff measures will depress investment, increase uncertainty: expert

Trump's tariff measures will depress investment, increase uncertainty: expert

China's civil aviation industry started winter-spring season on Sunday, with 216 domestic and foreign airlines planning to offer 116,000 passenger and cargo flights per week, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Running from Oct 25 to March 27 next year, the winter-spring season will see around 94,000 flights operated by 61 domestic airlines, with 34 domestic airlines planning to open 288 new domestic routes.

"In the new season, we plan to open 21 new routes, with a focus on increasing frequencies and launching new routes to popular ice-and-snow tourism areas such as the three northeastern provinces (of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang) and Xinjiang, as well as traditional popular tourism and warm-weather destinations in south China and southwest China," said Gao Lingyun, deputy general manager of the Network Revenue Department of China Eastern Airlines' Marketing Division.

In terms of international flights, 191 airlines plan to arrange 21,812 flights per week, reaching 85 foreign countries. Passenger services will cover 84 countries with 16,654 weekly flights.

Passenger flights to Central Asia, South Asia, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America will all increase year on year, with flight volumes to 17 countries, including Kazakhstan, India, Canada, and Belgium, growing by more than 40 percent.

"We will continue to restore and expand our international route network. In the new season, we will soon launch the first route from China to Iceland. In addition, we will focus on optimizing our southbound route network and increase capacity in the Australia-New Zealand market, as well as key Southeast Asian markets including Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam," said Zhou Yeting, senior deputy manager of Network Planning and Flight Planning at Air China.

The aviation market for inbound tourism is also growing notably, with planned frequencies on 16 premium inbound tourism routes, including Moscow-Haikou, Ulan Bator-Beijing and Busan-Zhangjiajie, rising 45.9 percent year on year.

China's civil aviation starts winter-spring season with 116,000 domestic, int'l flights planned per week