Former US treasury secretary: America’s strategy should be to pick the US up, not to hold China down

Source
CGTN.COM
Editor
Ouyang
Time
2018-03-24 23:18:12

Trade tensions between China and the United States flared this week when US President Donald Trump unveiled plans to slap tariffs on potentially up to 60 billion US dollars worth of Chinese goods, but several world elites voiced their concerns and oppositions against the potential trade war.

Former US treasury secretary: America's strategy should be to pick the US up, not to hold China down

The US government should focus more on picking itself up, instead of holding China down, said former US treasury secretary Larry Summers at the China Development Forum held in Beijing on Saturday.

"The trade war must be avoided at all cost, like nuclear wars," Summers told CGTN.

As for the ongoing chaos between China and the US, Summers said the best way is to negotiate.

When talking about the current tariffs and the ongoing war of words between the world's two largest economies, Summers noted that the best way is “through a quiet, non-public negotiation with carefully calibrated consequences that depend on what results of negotiation are.”

According to his prescription, making the economy healthier is important, and this is where the US has lots of work to do. “In general, I think America's strategy should be to pick the US up, not to hold China down.”

In his opinion, the US government could increase infrastructure investment, commitment to basic science, and provide human capital, education in particular, to all citizens.

“These are among the steps I think will push our economy forward,” Summers said, adding that “the resources we devote to the tax cut could [be used] much better if devoted to infrastructure investment."

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