Washington's trade war against Beijing doing American economy serious harm

That over the past two weeks about 3,500 US companies have sued the US administration for imposing punitive tariffs on imports from China offers much food for thought.

With more companies still joining the litigation, the plaintiffs, across a broad range of industries, include many big names such as Ford, Tesla, Target and Home Depot, demonstrating how closely the interests of the world's two largest traders are interwoven with each other.

The suits, filed in the US Court of International Trade, challenge the escalation of the US trade war with China.

Unlike its wont, the US administration has maintained a studied silence over the mounting number of lawsuits, perhaps because they have come after the World Trade Organization found on Sept 15 that Washington had violated global trading guidelines by imposing the tariffs as part of its trade war waged against China.

Sadly, trade, which should have been a growth pole for the common interests of the two countries, has become a pain spot for both.

As the claims of the plaintiffs indicate, the "unbounded and unlimited trade war" the US administration started with China has been more US-harming than China-harming.

Even though Washington pledged to slash half of its tariffs on about $120 billion worth of imports from China after inking the phase one deal with Beijing, it should not be forgotten that around $250 billion worth of Chinese goods are still subject to 25 percent tariffs and about $120 billion are subject to tariffs of 7.5 percent. A considerable part of these goods is actually produced by US companies in China and imported by the US.

It is evident, as economists from both countries tried to get the US administration to appreciate, that it is US companies and US consumers－exactly the parties for whom it vows to serve as a patron saint－that are paying the tariffs.

The Chinese economy, although it has felt the blows, has proved its resilience even amid the additional uncertainties caused by the global health crisis.

If all the US companies challenging the tariffs are not enough to prompt the US administration to ease the tariffs, the raging pandemic that it has failed to control till now and which is putting increased pressure on the US economy ought to give it pause for thought, since the fort it has built to block trade from China in a bid to extract concessions is in danger of falling in on the US itself.