Tariffs won’t fix US economic problems – Nigerian journalist

The American economy is built on consumption and outsourcing, not production, David Hundeyin has said

Imposing tariffs cannot resolve the deep-rooted structural inefficiencies in the US economy, Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin has told RT.

Hundeyin argued that the ideological rigidity driving Washington’s current policy risks aggravating short-term damage rather than addressing long-term contradictions in America’s economic role. 

“The economic inefficiency cannot be solved by merely imposing tariffs,” Hundeyin said.

He added that the global economic order has depended on a model in which production is outsourced, largely to Asia and South America, while consumption remains centered in the US. “That’s the world order that the US consciously and knowingly built,” he stressed. 

Hundeyin pointed out that domestic labor conditions in the US have long been tailored to serve a consumption-driven economy rather than an industrial one. 

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He cited the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who once noted that iPhones aren’t made in China because of cheap labor, but because of the country’s enormous pool of skilled workers. The scale of that skilled labor force, Hundeyin explained, is unmatched in the US, where, as Jobs famously remarked, such a workforce could fit in “a room,” while in China it would fill several “stadiums.”

Hundeyin believes the people surrounding US President Donald Trump are not blind to economic realities. He described the broader vision in Trump’s circle as an “ideological thing,” particularly by the belief that AI and automation would enable the return of manufacturing to American soil without the need for foreign labor.

Hundeyin, however, questioned what this would mean for the US workforce. “What is then going to happen to 300 million Americans who would have effectively been rendered obsolete overnight?” he asked.

Hundeyin suggested that China may see this situation “as an opportunity to fundamentally reshape the economic makeup of the entire world.”

READ MORE: World’s top cocoa producer threatens price hikes in response to US tariffs – Reuters

Earlier this month, Trump imposed higher “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly 90 countries, later announcing a 90-day pause and a reduced 10% rate – excluding China, whose imports now face a 145% duty. Twenty African nations were hit with increased tariffs, including Lesotho (50%), Madagascar (47%), and South Africa (30%).