China’s efforts to maintain the global supply chain are contributing to and supporting global economic growth, a Japan-based economist said. He emphasized that ensuring stability in the supply chain extending from China to the rest of the world is vital for the smooth functioning of the global economy.
Hidetoshi Tashiro, chief economist at Infinity LLC, a consultancy in stock market transactions and real estate management in Japan, said that the high punitive tariffs imposed on China during the first term of former US President Donald Trump led Chinese companies to invest directly in Vietnam and Mexico and set up local factories in these countries. This created a new supply chain from China to Vietnam and Mexico, and from there to the US.
“The US has arbitrarily imposed export and investment restrictions and bans on China on national security grounds. In the meantime, countries like Japan have taken similar steps in the name of ‘economic security’. Such actions are damaging the global supply chain,” he said. “In the face of these developments, China can accelerate free trade agreements with non-US countries, expand and strengthen the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and accelerate its participation in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. These steps could be part of a strategy to pursue a free trade system outside the United States,” he said.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202503/10/WS67ce3b2fa310c240449d9c04.html
