US politics live: Incredible figures show how Chinese exporters rushed to beat tariff deadline

A telling stat out of China has revealed how powerbrokers rushed to avoid ‘Liberation Day’, but industry figures are worried about the next step.

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Xi Jinping has warned a trade war between China and the US would have “no winners”, state media said, and that protectionism “leads nowhere”, as the leader kicks off a tour of Southeast Asia.

Writing in an article published today in Vietnam’s major Nhan Dan newspaper, Xi urged the two countries to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment”, Beijing’s Xinhua News Agency said.

He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a ‘trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”, the agency added.

It comes as a hedge fund founder who predicted the 2008 GFC has warned of “something worse than a recession” if Mr Trump mismanages his administration’s recently-imposed global tariffs and other economic policies.

“I think that right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession,” Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.

“And I’m worried about something worse than a recession, if this isn’t handled well.”

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Originally published as US politics live: Incredible figures show how Chinese exporters rushed to beat tariff deadline