So far, the economic threats levelled by Donald Trump towards China have failed to materialise. The US president pledged to brand China a “currency manipulator” on his first day in office. He also proposed on the campaign trail to impose a 45 per cent tax on imports from China.
But the lack of concrete action so far should not lull Asian trading partners into a false sense of security. Even if the threats against China are diluted or scrapped, the introduction of a possible border adjustment tax
, which would effectively tax companies’ spending on all imports into the US, could hit China and other Asian trading nations hard, analysts said.