US-CHINESE TRADE ESCALATION

Abstract

Introduction. The research presented in the article demonstrates the causes, patterns and consequences of the trade and economic conflict currently unfolding between the USA and China. The purpose of the article was to study the specifics of the current phase of trade conflicts between the USA and the PRC and to determine the current and prospective consequences of tariff excavations for both regional and global development. Research methods include the active involvement of synthetic, retrospective analysis, the method from the general to the specific, etc. Results. It is noted that for both countries, a similar course of events is forced and entails not so much advantages as significant risks and threats. It is shown that both the United States and China today must constantly prove their leadership ambitions, asserting their own authority in regional and global contexts. But, as studies have shown, both countries, in addition to obvious leadership ambitions and economic potential, are characterized by significant problems in the development of the domestic market, from inflation and debt burden in the US to the crisis of overproduction and investment disincentives in China. It is determined that precisely because of this, countries have long tried to avoid a direct clash of interests and maneuver within the existing field of alternatives. It is established that as a result of the tariff escalation announced by the new US administration, China not only resorted to a mirror response, but also began to form a regional anti-American coalition with its subsequent expansion to the European continent. Conclusion. In this context, it is concluded that the future development of trade markets will directly depend on the effectiveness of the trade and economic conflict between the USA and China, and this, in turn, has already significantly dynamized the turbulence of stock indices, key currencies, and commodity prices. Thus, the author shows that, without achieving full globalization, trade markets are fragmenting and regionalizing again. And national governments are increasingly resorting to simplified autarkic models of protectionist regulation, implementing a model of restoring economic sovereignty and self-sufficiency.