Over the past two decades, the world economy has staggered from one shock to another: the financial crisis; Donald Trump’s first-term trade war on China; the pandemic; post-pandemic inflation; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the war in the Middle East; and now Trump II’s “let’s-blow-the-world-economy-up-for-fun” trade war, which has brought average US tariffs back to levels not seen for over a century, with possibly more to come if “reciprocal tariffs” are reimposed. (See charts.)
在過去二十年中,世界經濟遭遇了一次又一次沖擊:金融危機、唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)第一任期內對中國發動的貿易戰、全球新冠疫情、疫情后的通貨膨脹、俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭、中東戰爭,以及如今再次上臺的特朗普“為找樂子而摧毀世界經濟”的貿易戰——這場貿易戰已將美國的平均關稅水平推高至一個多世紀以來未曾見過的高度,如果“對等關稅”重新實施還可能更高。(見圖表。)