Never mind the state visit, Trump’s multi-front trade wars are more contentious

As U.S. President Trump begins his three-day highly polemic, protest-fuelled state visit to the UK, the real concern should be regarding his mounting multi-front trade wars.

Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump are guests of the Queen and will be attending a ceremony in Portsmouth to commemorate 75 years since the D-Day landings.

Official talks with Prime Minister Theresa May are also scheduled.

Coupled with the large-scale anti-Trump protests, invitations to the state banquet have been rebuffed by high profile figures including Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and leader of the official opposition, Jeremy Corbyn.

However, I find it incomprehensible that Mr Trump’s banquet with Her Majesty the Queen is inciting more fury and outrage than his trade policies that threaten to spark a global recession.

Mr Trump is the democratically-elected leader of Britain’s most powerful ally, so a state visit is surely standard procedure? Indeed, many more controversial, less important, undemocratically-elected leaders have been welcomed to the UK in the same way.

Strangely, there have been no mass protests and belittling blimps flying around about Trump’s multi-front trade wars that make a global economic recession a very real prospect.

Consumers will inevitably be hit by Trump’s increasing protectionist stance, the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China, and now likely with Mexico, making it tougher for firms to do business, and likely lead to them passing on price hikes to customers.

In turn, this will lead to a reduction in demand, forcing job and wealth creating companies to slash costs, resulting in less investment, less jobs and, as such, less tax revenue for governments.

In May the U.S. president increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. In addition, U.S. representatives have also warned of tariffs being imposed on $300 billion in remaining Chinese imports.

Late last week, Trump tweeted the announcement that a 5 per cent tariff on all goods from Mexico would come into effect on June 10. This tariff would increase by 5 per cent every month, reaching a maximum of 25 per cent by October. According to Trump, the tariffs are in response to illegal immigration issues.

Trump’s anti-globalisation policies and increasingly protectionist stance have very real ramifications for people across the globe, particularly as China is introducing ‘counter measures’ and last week the White House re-opened the North American front in Trump’s global trade wars.

Therefore, rather than protesting about Trump’s state visit, people should be taking to the streets calling for free trade and ditching U.S.-led protectionism to boost the global economy.

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