Less than two weeks after taking office, the new US administration has again used the "tariff stick" against several countries, and its "America First" policy has drawn widespread criticism and concern from the international community. According to several global surveys conducted by CGTN, respondents generally believe that unilaterally imposing tariffs on other countries is not leading to substantial growth in the US economy, but is exacerbating the sluggish global economic recovery.
In the survey, 90.53 percent of global respondents criticize the U.S. government's trade protection measures as a serious violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Meanwhile, 90.68 percent of the respondents believe that the reckless economic coercive measures of the US against other countries highlight its bullying and arrogant side, and 92.14 percent consider the US economic coercion against other countries as seriously undermining the stability of the global market, which will have a long-term negative impact on the global economic recovery.
In recent years, the US has repeatedly undermined basic WTO principles, circumvented the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and provoked international trade frictions based solely on US domestic law. Even when the WTO ruled that the 'Section 301' tax measures violated WTO rules, the United States still investigated other countries' shipping, logistics and shipyard industries and raised tariffs on some import products.
The US government's unilateral tariff increases on other countries will ultimately be "paid for" by its own consumers, which may damage relations with traditional allies. Moody's estimates that 92 per cent of the cost of tariff increases on China is borne by the US consumer, with US households spending an additional $1,300 more each year because of the tariffs. Against this backdrop, 61 percent of global respondents believe U.S. tariff policy will have a profound negative impact on their own lives.
Many countries have said they will take countermeasures against US tariff measures and that a "trade war" may be launched at the global level. In the survey, 53.8 percent of European respondents believe that US trade barriers will have a serious negative impact on the global economy. Sixty-seven percent of global respondents believe that the "America First" concept emphasized by the new U.S. administration will make its traditional allies feel ignored and isolated, and 65 percent agree that the foreign policy adopted by the new U.S. administration will weaken its leadership on the international stage.
The above data comes from two global surveys and several online surveys conducted by CGTN, with a total of 14,071 respondents from 38 countries around the world, including respondents from developed countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada and Japan, and respondents from developing countries such as India, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico.
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