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Alibaba's Jack Ma Backs Down From Promise To Trump To Bring 1 Million Jobs to the US (cnbc.com)
Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, has abandoned a promise to create one million new jobs in the US, in a sign of the threat that rising trade tensions with China pose to some of US President Donald Trump's key economic goals. From a report: "The promise was made on the premise of friendly US-China partnership and rational trade relations," Ma told Chinese news site Xinhua on Wednesday. "That premise no longer exists today, so our promise cannot be fulfilled." Ma, who recently announced that he will step down as Alibaba chairman within a year, added that the company would "not stop working hard to contribute to the healthy development of China-US trade." Ma's comments come on the heels of a new round of tariffs this week from both China and the U.S. that will affect billions of dollars worth of goods as the two countries have failed to reach a deal to resolve the Trump administration's concerns about China's trade practices.
Do something about it yes, but not start a trade war with the entire world at the same time.
In order to win a trade war with China, USA need allies to help them put presure on China. Instead he said fuck you, to all the countries which would have been natural allies in such a trade war.
Anyone that knew Ma's history would have known he was blowing smoke up the skirt of anyone that would listen.
Ma was a prime example of the dirty business practices of the Chinese conglomerates.
For hundreds of year the Gold Standard (and by default the British Pound) were the standard for international Trade, simply because the Pound was backed by the gold reserves.
There was no US dollar from the Federal Reserve until 1913.
During WWII, the USA demanded payment from the UK etc in Gold, so by default the US ended up with the majority of Gold Reserves. It was in the 1950's when world trade was again taking off that the US$ became the standard (because of the gold they had). At this stage the USA also accounted for over 60% of the entire worlds GDP.
Today the USA accounts for about 19% of the worlds GDP (and falling), not because the USA failed, but because the rest of the world succeeded , it had rebuilt from WWII (something the US did not have to do). The USA is only 4% of the worlds population, so all other things being equal the USA could fall to 4% of the worlds GDP.
The rest of the world is starting to see the USA as a bully and wants the world to shift away from the USA and it politics dominating their countries and economies.
The Euro is a good example of this, though more needs to be done to equalise and stabilise the individual countries within the federation.
It is likely that China (if not already) will become the worlds biggest economy shortly, Trump is only accelerating this as other countries also believe the need to reduce dependance on the USA and are actively seeking trade agreements with each other, and in particular the Asian economies (which account for over 60% of the worlds population).
Trump said "Trade wards are easy to win", this also means "Trade wars are easy to loose" , Trump lacks any real understanding of world economics, international trade, all indications are people who have to deal with him believe he is an idiot. He is souring international relationships on an almost daily basis. This means he is far more likely to loose the war than win it. Shouting " USA USA USA" will not change this, and the cracks and failures in Welfare, Education, Health, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, democracy, , etc etc are growing wider in the USA (go search for USA world rankings on these measures).
The USA leads the worlds spending on the military , and seems to frequently use it, not so much to protect US citizens but to protect US corporate interests (Oil, etc). Perception is everything, and the worlds perception of the USA is falling .
Things like automobile production that have a lot of parts will suffer supply hiccups, but OTOH they're not really doing JIT manufacturing, most cars sit around on lots before even being transferred to the dealers, and the disruptions aren't as bad as they might sound on the tee-vee. The vast majority of products do not have that many parts. And none of it is exclusive to China. None of it.
Car companies are deciding now what models they will release in 2022. They have to decide now, where to build the plants, where to get the supplies etc. not knowing which countries will have tariffs at what levels on which parts is extremely disruptive and costly.