She was speaking on RTHK’s Backchat programme on Tuesday on Washington’s recent tariff barrage launched across the world, including an additional 34 percent tariff on Chinese imports.
In response, Beijing hit back with tariffs of 34 percent on all goods from the United States and added 11 US firms to its unreliable entity list.
The SAR lawmaker said Trump is ceding the role of champion of free trade and rule-based multilateral system to China.
“In the long term, China will be the winner, in terms of trade, technology and moral high ground,” she said.
Ip, who’s also chairperson of the New People’s Party, stressed that if Trump does decide to retaliate further, it will only continue to plummet global markets, and that the tariff war will likely continue unless Trump’s tycoon backers reign him in or he gets burned in the midterms.
As for the likelihood of a global recession, Ip said it’s likely.
“The SAR government should work out a panoply of policy options to buoy the local economy pending a global recession.”
When asked about the SAR not setting any countermeasures to the US tariffs, Ip said Hong Kong will continue to be a free port, is bound by the basic law, as well as its commitment to the World Trade Organization not to raise tariffs by 70 percent of goods.
Weighing in on the same issue, Andrew Leung, China strategist and former senior Hong Kong government official, said the US was upending the very trade institutes it helped create after World War 2.
“Trump is continuing what he started during his previous term in office, and since then, Chinese companies and institutions have been very successful on becoming self reliant in technology, so China is more prepared for this,” he said.
Leung also said Chinese products will remain competitive globally, like BYD electric cars, because of the superior technology and price, despite the tariff headwinds.
