原标题:专家怼人果然有文化,批特朗普:“关税猛药”治不好“逆差病”,反要了性命
在6月15日推出500亿美元征税清单之后,18日,美国再次发表声明,威胁将对华制定2000亿美元征税清单,投下一颗贸易“重磅炸弹”。
美国此举背离双方多次磋商共识,伤害中美两国人民和企业利益,不仅激起了中国强烈反击,也在美国政商学界引发层层反对声浪。
专家学者、企业高管纷纷对特朗普的贸易政策表示担忧,跟特朗普“摆事实,讲道理”。
01“关税猛药”病不能除,反夺性命
美国前商务部次长、奥巴马政府贸易官员斯蒂芬·赛利格(Stefan M. Selig)在CNBC网站发表文章,认为关税这剂猛药不能治病,反而会要命。
论特朗普贸易政策的根本性错误
其中,赛利格引用了一个十分有趣的比喻:特朗普政府和其支持者都会把特朗普的贸易政策比喻为“抗生素”(antibiotic):
They present Trump's trade agenda as an antibiotic. The side-effects may be unpleasant, but the infection will likely be eliminated.
他们将特朗普的贸易政策比作抗生素,期间虽然可能会有些令人不适的副作用,但最终仍会药到病除。
然而,赛利格表示,能说这话的人,很明显是没看到这“副作用”有多明显,才站着说话不腰疼。
双语君(微信ID:Chinadaily_Mobile)带你一起看看都有哪些“副作用”:
❶ 经济不稳定阻挡投资、影响全球经济发展
The first quarter of 2018 saw the VIX index, which measures volatility in the equity markets, increase by an astonishing 81 percent, where $2 trillion of U.S. market cap evaporated over the course of one ten-day period. Markets have added and shed as much as 2 percent of aggregate market value in multiple trading days.
先来看看VIX指数,这是衡量股票市场波动的一种指数,2018第一季度,VIX指数飙升81%,令人震惊,2万亿美国市场资金在10天之内凭空蒸发。在多个交易日内,股市跌跌涨涨,价值达到总市值的2%。
Meanwhile, both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned that a brewing global trade war could weaken the synchronous global growth we are experiencing.
与此同时,国际货币基金组织和经济合作与发展组织都警告称:这场发酵中的贸易战将削弱当前的全球同步增长。
This proves what dealmakers have always known: that volatility and uncertainty are the enemies of capital formation, and a trade agenda that engenders such volatility and uncertainty will curtail or at the very least postpone investment.
这证明了交易者一直都懂的一个规律:波动性和不确定性不利于资本形成。所以,一个引发波动和不确定性的贸易政策,会缩减或至少延缓投资。
❷ 制造业将丢7万饭碗
Up to 70,000 net jobs in manufacturing are projected to be lost due to steel and aluminum tariffs. And by jeopardizing access to global markets, the ongoing brinksmanship will directly undercut American manufacturing by increasing the price of the foreign inputs, including steel inputs, that our factories rely on to create internationally competitive finished goods, while threatening our status as the world's leading exporter of services and capital goods.
据预计,针对钢铁和铝的关税政策,将使美国失去多达7万个制造业净工作。此外,目前施行中的边缘政策让美国进入国际市场越来越难,这直接削弱了美国的制造业,因为我们一直依赖钢铁来生产具有国际竞争力的成品,而外国输入的产品,包括钢铁的价格又上涨了。这样一来,美国作为世界领先的服务与资本货物出口大国的地位也岌岌可危。
The forgotten Americans President Trump pledged to pay attention to—notably farmers and manufacturing workers—are precisely the people who will be hurt the most.
特朗普总统曾经承诺会关注那些被遗忘美国人,尤其是农民和制造业工人,如今,这些人恰恰成为了损失最为惨重的一群人。
文章称,这些都反应了美国贸易政策的根本性错误:他只着眼关税却忽视全球贸易规则。
This ignores the fact that these trade deficits are not the direct result of trade policy, but of the dollar serving as the global currency of choice, the impact of countries' savings and investment rates, and our reliance on foreign capital to make up the difference between what we save and what we spend.
他忽视了贸易逆差不是贸易政策的直接原因,而是美元作为全球货币选择,美国国内存款和投资率的影响,以及美国用外部投资来平衡支出和存款所产生的依赖。
最后,赛利格表示,特朗普的贸易政策真是应了句老话:
If the disease doesn't kill you, the cure surely will.
如果疾病没能要了你的命,那你吃的药铁定会。
02自由贸易才是最优解
美国乔治梅森大学莫卡特斯中心高级研究员维罗妮卡·德·鲁吉(Veronique de Rugy)在《纽约时报》发表的文章更是直接指出,降关税才是明智之举:
为什么美国应该降下所有关税
特朗普的“关税猛药”不止针对中国,也针对了不少其他国家,其中就包括美国亲密邻居兼好友加拿大。
文章表示,美国在关税上的“漫无目的”和“毫无意义”的无理取闹应该停止:
The United States should stop the scattershot, pointless nonsense on tariffs and go the other way, and hard: It should drop all tariffs, even if the rest of the world doesn’t follow.
美国在关税问题上漫无目的、毫无意义的无理取闹该停止了,它应该坚决地走另一条路:降低所有的关税,即便其他国家没有采取相同措施,也应如此。
为了讲明白自由贸易的重要性,这位高级研究员搬出了亚当·斯密等经济学家的理论……
Economists since Adam Smith have understood that free trade is the best policy. Studies show that countries with freer trade have both higher per-capita incomes and faster rates of productivity growth.
亚当·斯密以来的经济学家都认为自由贸易是最好的政策。有研究表明,贸易更自由的国家,人均收入更高,劳动生产率增长更快。
Economists have also long understood that barriers to trade, while pitched as a way to help domestic workers, always heavily penalize domestic consumers.
经济学家们也早就知道,贸易发展的障碍,即关税,其初衷是帮助国内工人,却总会严重损害国内消费者的利益。
这对特朗普政府来说也是一样的道理:
The same is true of Mr. Trump’s steel tariffs. Claiming that they protect a vital industry and its 140,000 workers, tariff supporters never mention how much harder they make things for the 6.5 million manufacturing workers in steel-consuming industries. Add to that number all of us who consume goods made of steel, and you get an even larger figure.
所以,特朗普对钢征税也是同样的道理。关税支持者们声称政府保护了一个重要产业及其14万工人,却从不告诉你,那些以钢铁为生的产业的650万制造工人日子有多难过。对了,还要加上我们所有购买钢铁消费品的消费者,这个数值只会越来越大。
如果反其道而行之,关税将会抬高成品价格,对美国企业,以及相关行业的就业带来沉重打击。
举个例子来看:
Consider a domestic company that imports specialty European steel not produced in the United States. Thanks to the tariffs, this company faces an instant 25 percent price increase. It will shift some of that cost onto its customers, making the final product more costly and thus less competitive at home and globally. Or the company might shift manufacturing abroad to gain access to cheaper materials.
设想一个美国公司主要进口欧洲特产的钢铁,这种钢铁在美国是没有的。由于关税增加,这家公司马上要面临25%的价格上调。这一费用的一部分就转移到了消费者身上。这样做的结果就是,最终的成品价格更高,无论是在国内还是国际市场,产品的竞争力都有所下降。公司也有可能把生产部门转移到国外以便获得更便宜的生产材料。
In both cases, the company probably takes a hit and might even lay off American workers. That’s what happened in the aftermath of President George W. Bush’s 2002 tariffs to the tune of 200,000 jobs lost in steel-consuming industries.
无论是哪种情况,公司都有可能遭受打击,甚至进行裁员。小布什2002年发布关税政策之后,就出现了这样的灾难,钢铁消耗行业失去了高达20万的工作岗位。
03引发美国商界广泛担忧
除了专家学者外,特朗普的贸易政策在商界也引发了明显的担忧。不少美国企业高管就对其贸易政策表示批评。
UBS集团首席执行官:我非常担心特朗普的对华贸易战走向失控
他表示,美国将面临可能来自任何一方的贸易威胁:
"I'm really worried that ... these things are going to get out of control. Somebody is going to announce something that then triggers a more serious issue," Ermotti said, stressing trade risk "could come from any side, Europe, U.S., China; you name it."
“我真的担心事情会走向失控。怕某些人(指美国政府)再宣布一些政策,引发更严重的问题。”埃尔莫提说,他强调,贸易威胁“可能来自任一方”,“欧洲、美国、中国,各种”。
摩根大通首席执行官杰米·戴蒙在本月月初也曾表示,特朗普的贸易政策对经济复苏来说是“药膏里的一只苍蝇”。
摩根大通首席执行官杰米·戴蒙
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the economy could continue to expand for one to three years but the Trump administration's trade policies are one of the "flies in the ointment" that could hurt growth.
摩根大通首席执行官杰米·戴蒙表示,美国经济在接下来的一年到三年还将继续增长,但是,特朗普政府的贸易政策就像“药膏里的苍蝇”,将会破坏这种增长趋势。
这两位CEO的担忧并非个例。6月8日,美国商业内幕新闻网站发布了一项最新调查的相关消息,调查名称是“商业圆桌会议首席执行官经济展望调查”(Business Roundtable CEO Economic Outlook survey),这是对美国大型公司CEO进行的一项季度调查。
调查显示,在回答了贸易相关问题的CEO中,对特朗普的贸易政策表示担忧的可谓数量惊人:
➤ 95% said "foreign trade retaliation leading to lower US exports" is a moderate or serious risk to the US economy.
95%的CEO表示“外国贸易反击导致美国出口减少”会对美国经济构成中等或者严重的风险。
➤ 91% said "higher costs of imports for U.S. consumers" is a risk.
91%的CEO表示“对美国消费者更高的进口商品价格”会构成一种风险。
➤ 90% said "higher input costs for U.S. businesses" was a risk.
90%的人说“对于美国公司来说,更高的进口费用”会构成一种风险。
➤ 89% said "lower U.S. economic growth" was a risk.
89%的人说“美国经济增长放缓”会构成一种风险。