Killing the chickens to frighten the monkeys
Andrew Sheves
** In partnership with **
A commentator on Bloomberg yesterday quoted the proverb “kill the chickens to frighten the monkeys” and explained how Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada are actually a signal to China: ’See how tough I can be on my allies. Now imagine what I could do to you.’ Unfortunately, no matter how you make the monkeys feel, you’ve still killed a few chickens.
🇨🇳 Whatever his intent, Trump deferred the Mexico and Canada tariffs yesterday but left the restrictions in place for China. Now China has retaliated. From Bloomberg.
Beijing imposed a 15% levy on less than $5 billion of US energy imports and a moderate 10% fee on American oil and agricultural equipment on Tuesday, moments after new US tariffs entered effect. China said it will also investigate Google for alleged antitrust violations, although Alphabet Inc.’s search services have been unavailable in the country since 2010.
In more targeted measures, authorities put Calvin Klein owner PVH Corp. and US gene sequencing company Illumina Inc. on a so-called blacklist of entities that could affect their sizable operations in China, and imposed new export control on tungsten and other critical metals used in electronic, aviation and defense industries.
Bloomberg Trade experts classified China’s retaliation as measured and designed to make a point without inflaming the situation.
🇮🇱 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Trump today as his first official foreign guest at the White House. Trump is keen to end the conflict in Gaza and has significant influence on Netanyahu but ending the conflict would put the Israeli PM in a difficult position politically and personally. [More - Washington Post]
🇨🇩 The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who hold the Goma region in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo delivered a ceasefire to allow humanitarian assistance to enter the areas. A regional peace summit is planned for this weekend.[More - AlJazeera]
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Carpe tomorrow!