Its earnings season which leads us to mull the fate of companies large and small and of industries that are global in scope Granted were only a week in And granted most everyone looks at the marquee names The banks have seen some stickiness in the consumers propensity to spend Trading volumes are up too the Wall Street kind You hear or read the words trading volumes and the mind casts back to headlines that are on trade of a different sort The trading volumes that cross borders of course or lack thereof Where the trade war comes into play for tech firms and for payments firms is where the weaponry goes beyond tariffs and extends into the non-tangible realm tied to intellectual property that is The latest salvo in the trade war has been one that has seen Donald Trump state that tariffs may come on 500 billion of Chinese goods which is essentially everything That runs the gamut from edibles to electronics The playing field is an uneven one as China imports much less from the US so the impact cannot be one that sees an escalation where we levy tariffs China does for a commensurate amount and then eventually someone cries uncle and we all go to the negotiating table again The US approach has been rather quick The Trump administration announced tariffs on the first tranche of Chinese products 34 billion worth with 25 percent tariffs Then came 200 billion worth of goods the following week with a relatively smaller percentage levied at 10 percent Now it seems that everything is on the table This all comes as China has a lot of financial risk tied to debt that is out in the field as much as 19 trillion At the same time the country has instructed its lenders to stir small business lending by keeping a close watch and lid on interest rates The implication here is that the government needs to make sure demand is in place both internally and externally to keep the economy afloat Thus Might they blink Might they concede to lessening the trade imbalance Its a risky gamble for the Trump administration and one that may presage the trade war extending well beyond the confines of tangible items such as soybeans and pork What else can the Chinese do to wage economic battle given the fact that it imports only about 130 billion in US goods Plenty it seems beyond the confines of matching tariff for tariff Firms like Facebook and Google want in on the vast market that is Chinas The dictates that exist to give permission to enter that coveted market are strict ones Consider that Apple had to relocate some of its data storage to the region Consider too that Amazons China-based operations are controlled by companies there The key is to satisfy local licensing mandates In a trade war then China can do a few things It can make the restrictions even tighter or can ban firms from entering in the first place and can even rouse citizens to boycott US firms goods and services These arrows in the quiver may be leverage enough to blunt US-imposed tariffs not all of which have concrete timelines Qualcomm is still waiting for the go-ahead from China to complete its 40 billion buy of NXP The deadline is this week might it be dashed on the rocky shoals of the trade war Financial publications have stated that China is mulling delaying such approvals even though the chip deal had won approval through at least part of the Chinese process The deal may hinge less on the merits of that individual tie-up than the trade volleys and even the ways ZTE may or may not emerge from recent decisions by the US government to ease penalties related to past sanctions Retaliate for the retaliation and the slope becomes slippery with no telling where it may stop - You Might Also Like china China economy Chinese goods Chinese tariffs cross-border international News tariffs trade wars