President Trump, that perpetual winner, is claiming to be winning the trade war with China. Makes sense….I mean for reasons other than that he likes boasting. It would be really hard for America to lose that war. First, the USA exports what? Maybe 8% of its GDP, of which half is to Mexico and Canada. The USA does not need China, except for one thing: rare earths. “Rare” in that usage does not mean that they are hard to find; it generally means that they are found in ore where they are diluted. Massive amounts of ore have to be refined to procure a small amount of the rare earths. China has cheap labor and does that refining. The USA needs those rare earths.
I expect that China would play the rare earth card if they were not well aware that trade wars sometimes turn into shooting wars, just like a currency war turned into this trade war.
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