China-US trade war will escalate: Ex-negotiator

Bloomberg

The trade dispute between the US and China will continue for the foreseeable future and escalate, and is going to be painful for Americans, according to a former US trade negotiator.
“For the foreseeable future, we’re going to be in a tariff world and we’ll see escalation,” said Asia Society Vice President Wendy Cutler, formerly a negotiator at the US Trade Representative. “We’re in for a long-haul with tariffs, but eventually there will be a negotiated solution as both sides will end up hurting too much as this
tariff war escalates.”
“Everyone forgets now that the $50 billion in tariffs has only been in place a month or two, and it’s a smaller number. Once you put the $200 billion in place, even at 10 percent, and raise that to 25 percent on January 1, those are big numbers,” she said. “That’s affecting a lot of imports, both industrial and consumer. So I think that with time, we’re going to see Americans hurting from these tariff increases more and more.”
“I fear that both sides are entering a really hard-line period where it’s getting difficult for both sides to find a way back to the negotiating table,” according to Cutler.