A WAR OF TWO SUPERPOWERS JAI G. The two most powerful economies in the world -the U.S and China- have locked horns and engaged in a bitter trade war for the last 18 months. What started as a dispute over unfair trade practice, an unlevelled playing field for firms and theft of intellectual property has now translated into tariffs on goods worth more than hundreds of
billions of dollars, and a threat to the global economy. In the last 20 years, China’s unprecedented economic success [Figure 1] has led to a growing sentiment in Washington that their trade practices are a problem, since these practices are unfair to American companies. These practices have helped the economy as a whole fuelling
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