Global powers are increasingly opting for an “escalate-to-negotiate” strategy when it comes to addressing trade tensions, experts noted.
The US and China look to have perfected this dance: “First, create a crisis,” The Wall Street Journal’s chief China correspondent wrote. “Then… step in to negotiate a solution, allowing both leaders to claim a victory.”
Indeed, Morgan Stanley economists now expect “a continued dynamic of rolling negotiations and truces” in “a grinding, tactical contest for advantage” between the superpowers.
Others are mulling the same playbook: The EU should deploy its “trade bazooka” against China to force Beijing to withdraw restrictions on rare earth exports, analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations recommended in a recent policy brief.