By Alec Hogg
While South Africa has been pre-occupied by land expropriation and listeriosis, elsewhere on earth much attention has been focused on Donald Trump’s latest surprise. Last week’s decision to slap a 25% tariff on foreign steel and 10% on aluminium entering the world’s biggest market put markets into a tizz. Trump then poured petrol onto that fire by tweeting the ridiculous nonsense that “trade wars are good and easy to win.”
Economists, diplomats and media pundits were apoplectic. But in all the noise it was the Chinese, the nation with supposedly the most to lose, who remained calm. Because unlike the western intelligentsia, they don’t write the Donald off as a fool. Instead, China’s officials saw the shock for what it was: a classic Trump negotiating tactic. And, as we now see, one that worked a treat.
After some squeezing from its Chinese benefactors, North Korea yesterday made a surprise “let’s talk – we’ll disarm” offer to the White House. And on yesterday’s final session of their talks, the US Commander in Chief told Canada and Mexico he might drop the proposed tariffs if they signed the NAFTA trade deal he wanted.
In his book The Art Of The Deal, Trump wrote: “My style of deal-making is quite simple and straight forward. I aim very high and then I just keep pushing and pushing to get what I’m after. Sometimes I settle for less than I sought, but in most cases I still end up with what I want.” This time, ruffled feathers aside, Trump’s approach worked out just fine.
