US President Donald Trump is known for his penchant for mockery of the conventional political niceties and for his proclivity for bulldozing opponents’ views. He is not mental but temperamental by every sense of the term. His arrogance and idiosyncrasies send shock waves not only among the Democrats but across the Republicans as well. Annoyingly, he can belittle anything and demean anybody without the blink of an eye. Bullying people has been his forte and every time he said something toxic and got into trouble, he got away by paying money.
We recall that Donald Trump had created a tsunami across the world last week by announcing his tariff structure of stupendous proportion that upset many economies and stock markets around the world. Over the week many world leaders directly contacted him with requests to reduce the high rate. Possibly this is exactly what he wanted secretly to boost his ego. He grabbed the opportunity to twist their hands until they said ouch! Debates raged across the world on whether he can do such a thing unilaterally bypassing all the existing trade agreements.
And here is his latest gimmick! He has put the tariff threat on hold for the next 90 days for all countries except China! This sudden move has again surprised many but did not go down well with the analysts, political leaders and general people of Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Some of their remarks have been scornful to say the least. Le Monde of France termed his U-turn as “unapologetic”. This important media wrote, “A revolution that includes a ‘pause’ is not a revolution. It’s a debacle, a disorderly improvisation, even if its architects refuse to face the obvious.”
Amidst the commotion, his comment that all the countries are lining up for negotiations with him ‘kissing my a…’ cannot be just brushed off as a bad joke. It is downright guttural and the world must condemn him in the same language. By uttering such lowly words, he exposed his own background and a tainted persona.
By the look of things, we have yet to see the end of the tariff turbulence. It is just a ‘pause’ as Donald Trump said. We believe three months is a long time as anything might happen in this period. If the high tariff is not reduced or removed after 90 days it might permanently damage many economies and even governments, especially in South-East Asia. The economy of Bangladesh, for example, will be in for total chaos if the tariff rate is not brought to the original 15%. Bangladeshi economists feel if the newly imposed tariff of 37 % is not reduced, many of our RMG orders will go to India and Pakistan and many of the factories will have to shut down. This will lead to unemployment in mass scale leading to social unrest.
In order to get out of this mess we have to send best of our diplomats and senior economists to the US to continue negotiations with them offering deals to our mutual benefits. We shall have to meet powerful Senators and employ lobbyists to plead on our behalf.
We may have to accept some of their terms and conditions if we want our RMG factories to survive and receive a flow of orders like before the tsunami.