The US president’s aim isn’t to plunge the world into a new Depression, but extract negotiations from America’s trade partners to redress imbalances, Dr. Roberts, a veteran economist and former US Treasury assistant, explains.
The strategy has already proven somewhat successful, if reports that over 50 nations have agreed to reduce tariffs and pen new trade deals are accurate, Roberts told Sputnik.
China is another story, according to the economist, with its sheer economic power putting it and the US in a tit-for-tat escalation of increasingly steep tariffs.
DR. PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS UNSCRAMBLES TRUE PURPOSE OF TRUMP’S GLOBAL TARIFF BLITZ
Trump’s aim isn’t to plunge the world into a new Depression, but extract negotiations from trade partners to redress imbalances, Roberts, a former US Treasury assistant, explained. pic.twitter.com/iEh4nlbUDy
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) April 9, 2025
The problem, according to the economist, is that Trump “is trying to make China [redress] a trade balance that is caused by the American corporations” which flocked to the Asian nation seeking lower costs and higher profits, ultimately leading to the US’s massive $295B trade deficit.
Otherwise, Trump’s global tariff blitz is aimed at preventing long, drawn out negotiations that would take “years” to complete, Roberts said. “So he’s using threats to speed the process.”
As for the wild stock market fluctuations, Roberts expects volatility to die down once people understand Trump’s strong-arm negotiating strategy.
