ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the brackish waters of a trade war between China and the US, enmeshing commodities like poultry products, steel, tyres, and automobiles. 'G-2' could stumble on the choppy seas of this trade war, not to mention the absence of compelling geopolitical rationales to forge another Washington-Beijing axis. The chapter offers a panoramic view of the major trade, financial and currency disputes and alliances since the crisis began in 2008. It also deals with two crisis-response measures which ended up stoking inter-state economic conflicts. Andrew Kenningham of the consultancy, Capital Economics, argued that as world trade grew less than world Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, it constituted a temporary reversal of the globalisation process which has seen trade rise more rapidly than GDP over the past few decades. Tariff-free entry to Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) producers was promoted by European leaders as largesse for their former wards to develop without aid dependency.
