李显龙近期对关税战的分享里,我最有启发的是这一段,因为大多数人在关心 Why (MAGA hurt us, and themselves), What (they trying to do), 李给我的启发是,我们应该更关注 How (to face the future)
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It’s not going to go away soon because once you put in that tariff, once you protect your market, it’s very difficult to take it away.
这个问题不会很快消失。因为一旦你加征了关税,开始保护本国市场,要再撤销它,其实非常困难。
People get used to it, some company may invest, you put in a tariff you think come and invest in America. So I invest in America. It’s really not competitive.
人们会逐渐适应这种保护,一些企业可能也会因此在美国投资。你以为加了关税,企业就会进来。但他们进来之后,发现根本没有竞争力。
You want to build Christmas trees in the US, that’s very expensive, where to find workers.
比如你想在美国本土制造圣诞树,那是非常昂贵的,上哪儿找那么多工人?
But after you have got a tariff and after the Christmas tree factory has come on, then you want to undo it. The factory says, I’m going to die, please help me, so you can’t undo it anymore. It is there as a reality.
可一旦关税落地,工厂建成了,你又想取消,企业就会说:“你要是撤了,我就活不下去了,政府必须帮我。”这时候你就动不了了,关税已经成了既定现实。
And furthermore, if you undo it, then the party in opposition will say, but you see, the Chinese have their tariffs still on. Why am I disarming myself.
更何况,如果你真的撤了关税,在野党就会说:“你看看,中国的关税还在,为什么我们自己要解除武装?”
You have to negotiate with them for the long process to go from where the Americans were before the war, when they had high tariffs, to where they were by 2000, when the tariffs were 1%, nearly zero.
你要走回头路,只能通过谈判,重新进入一个漫长的过程——从战前美国的高关税,一直到2000年降到1%,接近于零,这中间走了将近八十年。
That was a nearly 80 year business process, gradually bringing things down.
那是一个长达八十年的过程,是一步步缓慢推进的。
So now if the tariffs go up, they stay up for a while, if you want to bring them back down, I think that’s going to be a long process.
所以,如果现在关税升上去了,它可能会在高位维持相当一段时间。你要把它们再降下来,将会是一个长期过程。
It’s not going to disappear, so that’s going to be a long problem.
这个问题不会自动消失,它注定是一个长期的难题。