US-China 'Absurd' Trade War Likely To Involve More Countries - Investor

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th May, 2023) The absurd trade row between China and the United States will end up involving other nations before it ends, renowned US investor Jim Rogers told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden vetoed legislation that would have reinstated tariffs on solar panels from Chinese companies after American importers complained. The move comes in contrast to the Biden administration efforts targeting other aspects of China's economy, such as tighter export controls on semiconductor equipment.

"Nobody wins trade wars, nobody ever has and sometimes trade wars become shooting wars when they get really bad. The whole Chinese trade war is absurd," Rogers said. "I'm afraid America's more at fault than China. China has been more restrained but China's getting involved too. That's what happens in trade wars."

Rogers noted that when one country does something, then the other country has to hit back, and that's how you have trade wars.

"China is so far doing okay, America so far is doing okay. But not as well as we would without the trade war," Rogers said. "And the trade war is going to get worse. And the trade war is going to involve other countries too before it's over.

They always do."

Rogers also said when the US like many countries faces problems like a recession the first thing they do is blame foreigners.

"Foreigners have different skin, different eyes, different language, different food, different clothes, and different religion. Everybody blames the foreigners. They always have and then things get worse," he added.

Despite the increasingly hostile rhetoric between Washington and Beijing, bilateral trade reached a record $690.6 billion in 2022.

In early May, IMF official Krishna Srinivasan warned in an interview with Nikkei that increased trade tensions between the US and China would result in economic losses for both countries as well as Asia as a whole.

Rogers, the creator of the Rogers International Commodity Index (RICI), co-founded the world-renowned Quantum Fund and is currently the chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests. Time Magazine in 1994 dubbed Rogers the "Indiana Jones of finance" given the high profits he made investing in emerging foreign stocks that Wall Street neglected during the 1970s.