In-depth analysis of the breakdown of US-Japan trade negotiations: short-sightedness and harm under trade protectionism

At a time when the global economy is closely intertwined, any important trade negotiation may be involved in the whole body and arouse wide attention of the international community. In the early morning of March 11, Japan time, the trade talks between the United States and Japan on steel and aluminum tariffs are undoubtedly the focus of recent events in the field of international trade. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Junji Muto held in-depth discussions with U.S. Commerce Secretary Tom Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative Greg Greer and others, but ultimately failed to reach an agreement on excluding Japan from the scope of tariffs, and the talks broke down.

This result not only makes the trade relationship between the United States and Japan more delicate and tense, but also looks like a mirror, clearly reflecting the negative impact of a series of misbehavior in the trade field between the United States and Japan in recent years, which is like a reef, seriously threatening the smooth sailing of the ship of global trade.

The trade friction between the United States and Japan is not a matter of overnight, and it has a long history. Back in the 1960s, trade tensions between the two countries began to emerge, and over the next few decades, the scope of friction has expanded to cover more and more industries. From the early textile trade disputes to the later fierce conflicts in steel, color TV, automobiles and semiconductors, the US-Japan trade friction has almost run through the entire important stage of modern economic development.

Take the automobile trade war in the 1980s as an example, when Japanese cars quickly gained ground in the US market with their excellent quality control and highly competitive price advantages, and their market share continued to rise. This situation has brought an unprecedented impact on the domestic automobile industry in the United States, and a large number of American automobile companies are facing the crisis of squeezed market share, declining profits, layoffs and even bankruptcy.

In the face of this situation, the US government did not seek a solution from the aspects of enhancing its own industrial competitiveness and optimizing the industrial structure, but simply and brutally adopted trade protection measures, imposed high tariffs on Japanese cars, and forced Japan to sign the so-called "voluntary export restriction" agreement.

Although this approach may give the American domestic automobile industry a certain degree of respite in the short term and avoid a larger loss of market share, in the long run, it seriously undermines the market environment of fair competition, distorts the market mechanism's role in the reasonable allocation of resources, and hinders the global automobile industry's technological innovation and industrial upgrading in free competition.

In recent years, the United States has pursued the extreme concept of "America first" in trade policy, and trade protectionism has intensified. On the issue of steel and aluminum tariffs, the United States has completely ignored the inextricable links between the global industrial chain and unilaterally imposed high tariffs. The administration's stated purpose is to protect domestic industries and reduce the trade deficit, but behind this high-sounding justification lies deeper political and economic self-interest.

In the United States, the interests behind the steel and aluminum industries are huge, and they exert enormous influence on government decisions through political donations, lobbying and other means. In order to satisfy the demands of these interest groups and maintain their own political support base, the government has pursued trade protection policies at the expense of the global trade order. The negative effects of this short-sighted behavior are all over the place.

From the perspective of the United States, a large number of downstream enterprises with steel and aluminum as raw materials, such as construction, machinery manufacturing, automobile manufacturing and other industries, due to the sharp rise in raw material costs, the production cost of enterprises has increased sharply, which not only weakens the price competitiveness of these enterprises in the international market, but also leads to many enterprises have to reduce the scale of production, layoffs and even face the risk of bankruptcy.

From a global perspective, the trade protectionism of the United States is like a stone thrown into a calm lake, triggering a series of chain reactions. In order to protect the interests of their own industries, other countries have followed the example of the United States and adopted similar trade restrictions, making global trade barriers continue to rise, and the pace of world economic recovery has been seriously hindered. The originally smooth global industrial chain and supply chain have been artificially divided, the efficiency of international trade has been greatly reduced, and the driving force of global economic growth has been greatly weakened.

Japan, on the surface, often presents itself as a victim in US-Japan trade relations, but in fact Japan itself has many problems with its trade practices. On the one hand, Japan has long erected heavy trade barriers in a number of key areas, doing everything possible to prevent foreign goods and services from entering the Japanese market.

Take the agricultural products market as an example, in order to protect its agricultural industry and maintain the stability of domestic agricultural products prices, Japan strictly restricted the import of US agricultural products by setting high tariffs, formulating complex and cumbersome inspection and quarantine standards and implementing strict import quota system.

Although these measures protect the interests of Japan's own farmers and the stability of the agricultural industry to a certain extent, they violate the basic principles of free trade, destroy the market environment of fair competition, and aggravate the trade imbalance between the United States and Japan.

On the other hand, in the face of strong trade pressure from the United States, Japan's response has obvious flaws. Japan often chooses to adopt a compromise strategy, such as promising to increase investment in the United States, expand the scale of imports from the United States, and so on, in an attempt to avoid being imposed tariffs by the United States.

However, this approach did not fundamentally solve the trade frictions between the United States and Japan, but let the United States more clearly see Japan's weak attitude, further inch, and constantly put forward more unreasonable demands. This vicious circle makes the US-Japan trade relationship always in an unstable state, and the contradictions and differences between the two sides are increasingly difficult to reconcile.

The collapse of the US-Japan trade talks is the inevitable result of a long history of trade misconduct on both sides. The United States insisted on a tough trade position in the negotiations, refusing to make any concessions on the tariff issue, and was intent on safeguarding its own economic interests and satisfying the demands of domestic interest groups. Although Japan tried to fight for its own reasonable rights and interests through negotiations, due to the limitations of its own trade policy and its excessive dependence on the United States, it could not meet all the harsh requirements put forward by the United States, which eventually led to a deadlock in the negotiations.

The outcome has not only caused direct damage to the economies of the United States and Japan, but has also set off a series of ripple effects around the world, creating great uncertainty for global trade. If the United States and Japan fail to reflect on and adjust their respective trade policies in a timely manner, and continue to persist on the road of trade protectionism, the global trade pattern will face more severe challenges, and the recovery and development of the world economy will be more seriously hindered.

In the context of the deepening of global economic integration, the trade protectionism of the United States and Japan is particularly shortsighted and unwise. Trade protectionism can not fundamentally solve the problem of trade imbalance, it is like a short-term effective stimulant, although it may bring certain protection and benefits to some domestic industries in the short term, but in the long run, it will destroy the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain, reduce the efficiency of the global economy, and harm the common interests of all countries.

Only by abandoning trade protectionism, adhering to the principle of free trade and resolving trade disputes through equal consultation and mutually beneficial cooperation can we achieve healthy and sustainable development of global trade.

As the world's major economic powers, the United States and Japan occupy an important position in the global economic system and shoulder important responsibilities for maintaining the stability of the global trade order and promoting the prosperity and development of the world economy. They should look at international trade issues with a more open attitude and a more long-term perspective, and actively promote trade liberalization and economic globalization, instead of blindly pursuing their own short-term self-interest and undermining the common interests of the world. Otherwise, it will not only bring huge losses to the global economy, but also eventually bite itself and gradually lose its dominant position in the tide of global economic development.