US-China Tariff War: Anti-Globalisation Wave Blowing in the Wind

With the right-wing “populist nationalism” usurping across Western-World, there is a rise in anti-globalisation; mainly led by US-China tariff war. But what we find is that the genesis of anti-globalization movement is not globalisation itself but the failure of productivity led growth in industrial sector, particularly in Europe and failure of re-destructive policies in developed west, particularly in USA. Reviewing the history of tariff war and welfare maxims of trade policy, we argue that the correct approach to address trade imbalances and to domestic redistributive gorals is through multilateral negotiations but not one of resorting to an abrupt and unilateral trade distortionary measures such as tariffs or quotas. While China must address correcting its sustained trade surplus, retaliatory imposition of tariffs by US, the major beneficiary of cheap imports from China, are not the panacea for global trade globalisation juggernaut.