Latest US tariff threat slammed

　 An employee arranges clothing at a Walmart Inc store in Secaucus, New Jersey. Walmart is expected to be hit if a trade war starts. [Photo provided to China Daily]

More global experts on trade are expressing serious concerns on the latest protectionist tariffs introduced by the US against China, the European Union, Mexico and Canada.

Such tariffs, they say, severely affect the global supply chain and put an extra burden on multinationals, including US companies sourcing components from the rest of the world.

"With regret from many (countries) around the world, the US has departed from the principle of free trade and has embarked on a full-blown trade war," said Christopher Bovis, a professor of international business law at the University of Hull in England.

"The US actions threaten to unseat global supply chain arrangements and destroy existing trade partnerships that have promoted economic growth and employment in many parts of the world."

Hans Uszkoreit, an academician with the European Academy of Sciences, said against the backdrop of China-US trade tensions, economic, scientific and technological cooperation between China and the European Union are expected to be put on a fast track.

Uszkoreit expected that the trade spat can, to some extent, "bring China (and the) EU closer", as the two already share long historical links and manufacturing connections.

On July 6, US tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods, including medical devices and airplane parts, took effect.

Douglas Morton, head of Asia research at Northern Trust Capital Markets, contended that the tariffs, which also impact exchange rates, will create challenges for multinationals that take out loans in one market to pay for their expansion in another.

Airlines and property companies are also especially vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations, Morton added.

Zhao Huanxin in Washington and Ren Xiaojin in Beijing contributed to this story.