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| The Hindu Newspaper Editorial Vocabulary : 21-November-2018 -For Various Competitive Exams |
When giants clash: on the US-China discord
The U.S.-China discord at APEC highlights the dangers of their tariff war
Breaking with more than a
quarter-century of history, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
organisation wrapped
up its summit with no joint communiqué issued. Its leaders, principally
led by the U.S. and China, clashed over the proposed wording of the document.
The economic rivalry between Washington and Beijing appeared to fracture
the 21-nation summit into two segments. The source of the friction stemmed from
the Trump administration’s “America First” policy, under which Washington led
the charge on “unfair trade practices”. This was an implicit accusation that China
wasn’t levelling
the playing field in global trade. The U.S. has been urging China to
increase market access and grant intellectual property protections for American
corporations, cut back on industrial subsidies and, at a broader level, bring
down the $375-billion trade gap. Vice President Mike Pence, who
attended on the President’s behalf, also hinted at strategic pushback
when he called
upon nations to eschew loans that could leave them in a debt trap with
Beijing. The Chinese message at the plenary was a strategic one too: President Xi
Jinping did not
mince words in touting Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI
has worried smaller Asian nations and the U.S., particularly given that China
views the Asia-Pacific landscape as a means to secure economic predominance
worldwide.
To understand what this clash of the global
economic titans
portends for the world trading system, it is instructive to examine
the path of their mutual conflict thus far. The troubles began over the summer
when both countries started taxing $50 billion worth of the other’s imports,
followed by the U.S. slapping $200 billion of Chinese exports with a 10%
tariff, to be ratcheted
up to 25% by the year-end. China, unsurprisingly, retaliated with a
promise to impose reciprocal taxes to the tune of $60 billion. Already, the
tariff war has resulted in the IMF downgrading its global growth outlook for
this year and the next to 3.7%, down 0.2 percentage points from an earlier
forecast. If this continues, eventually global supply chains may be hit, and shrinking
trade volumes may cause companies to seek out new trading routes and partners.
Institutionally, multilateral rule-making bodies such as the WTO may lose their
authority, and an interlocking system of bilateral trade treaties and punitive
sanctions
networks may substitute the consensus-based approach that was forged so painstakingly
after World War II. Asia will be at the heart of this war of attrition because strategic
control of its high-value maritime trading routes is the key to China’s dreams
of global trade dominance. After the APEC summit the world is still poised
on the edge of the trade war vortex. The forthcoming G20 meeting in
Argentina offers an opportunity to pull back from the brink.
01. Discord (noun) – enmity, opposition, quarrelling.
02. Tariff war
(noun) – a condition in which a country increase tariffs on foreign goods and
impose quota restrictions to restrict other countries’ trade.
03. Breaking with
(phrasal verb) – act against procedural/traditional way.
04. Wrapped up
(phrasal verb) – conclude, finish, complete.
05. Communiqué (noun) – official communication, press release,
bulletin.
06. Fracture
(verb) – split, separate, break.
07. Implicit
(adjective) – implied, indirect, hinted.
08. Leveling the playing
field (phrase) – a situation in which everyone has the equal chance
of succeeding.
09. Trade gap/Trade
deficit (noun) – a trade deficit/gap (a deficit in the balance of
trade) occurs when the value of a country’s imports exceeds that of its
exports.
10. Pushback
(noun) – a negative reaction.
11. Called upon
(phrasal verb) – demand, require, ask formally.
12. Eschew
(verb) – abstain/refrain from, give up/shun/reject.
13. Debt trap
(noun) – a situation which causes a damaging cycle of borrowing when someone
cannot repay their debts on schedule.
14. Plenary
(noun) – a meeting (to be attended by all participants of a group at a
conference).
15. Not mince
words (phrase) – talk/speak straight; call a spade a spade.
16. Touting
(verb) – advertise/publicize; endorse/urge.
17. Predominance
(noun) – supremacy, power, hegemony/sovereignty.
18. Titans (noun)
– an extremely important, powerful & strong person/thing.
19. Portends (verb)
– foretell, presage, augur.
20. Thus far
(phrase) – previously, past, already.
21. Ratcheted up
(verb) – to increase something by a series of small amounts.
22. Shrinking
(verb) – reduce/diminish, lessen, dwindle.
23. Seek out
(phrasal verb) – discover, detect, find.
24. Punitive
(adjective) – harsh/severe, stringent; corrective/retributive.
23. Sanctions
(noun) – action taken, or an order given to force a country to obey
international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not
allowing economic aid for that country, etc (Courtesy: VOA Learning English).
24. Painstakingly (noun) - careful, meticulous, assiduous,
sedulous, diligent, industrious, hard-working, conscientious, punctilious, scrupulous,
particular.
25. War of
attrition (noun) – a military strategy consisting of aggressive
attempts to win a war by wearing down (weakening) the enemy to the point of
collapse through continuous losses in personnel and materiel.
26. Poise
(verb) – balance, be suspended, hang.
27. Vortex
(noun) – countercurrent, counterflow, whirlwind/eddy (circular movement).
Figuratively to refer confusion, disturbance, commotion).
28. Forthcoming
(adjective) – imminent, impending, nearing.
29. Pull back
(phrasal verb) – withdraw, retreat, disengage.
30. Brink
(noun) – edge/verge/end (of something).
Note: All meanings took from Oxforddictionaries.com and Google.co.in only
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