I recently read an interesting article regarding the US partially easing tariffs -taxes imposed on imports -on China. It was written by Phillip Inman, who is the economics writer for the Guardian. 

China hopes a deal to end trade wars with the US can be reached after some tariffs have been rolled back. 

Chinese officials can confirm that a first-stage trade deal with the US has been planned. It includes Beijing ending the purchase of some US agricultural goods in exchange for Washington lightening tariffs on Chinese imports.

Beijing wants to roll back tariffs on £280bn of Chinese imports before the signing of a partial trade deal with the US. The negotiators want Trump to scrap tariffs on about $110bn of goods that were imposed in September and decrease the 25% tariff rate.

There have been many issues with the deal, the US is seeking to extract broader concessions forcing China to protect American companies from property theft and unfair competition.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting during the G20 Summit on June 29, 2019 in Osaka, Japan.

China’s demands for further cuts could be a deal-breaker, and if the US considers the smaller deal as a limited first step towards a second deal, it will want to keep the pressure on. Without sufficient tariffs, in place, China is less likely to cooperate in the next stage of negotiations on tougher issues.

Economists have already shown that the two countries trade war has slowed global growth significantly and an interim trade deal that rolls back some tariffs can potentially improve the economic forecasts.

I have always been very interested in inequality, and how it affects the world, I am growing up in. The typical stereotype of inequality and probably the one most talked about is gender inequality however, I decided to look into income inequality, and I was surprisingly shocked.

An interesting article I read called Inequality: is it rising, and can we reverse it? It was written by the economic correspondent for the guardian Richard Partington.

Income inequality is on the rise since 1970 and wealth has been distributed particularly unevenly since the 2008-09 financial crisis. As Sir Angus Deaton, the Nobel prize-winning economist who is leading the five-year review of inequality said: “There’s a sense that London is gobbling up everything and there are cities that are doing OK, but there are large parts of the country where that’s not the case at all.”

How do we measure it? The main measurement used is called the Gini index, (Gini index explaination) which gives a score from 0 to 100 to measure the distribution of a nation’s income.

Are there other ways to measure? For example, the average chief executive pay in 2017 was 145 times higher than the average worker’s pay, which had increased from 47 times in 1998. 

Since the financial crisis, the public perception of inequality has increased.

John Darkow / Columbia Daily Tribune, Cagle Cartoons

Other arguably more important forms of inequality? For example, the standard of living, gender or age. Should these be taken into account?

The fact that shocked me was 8 out of 10 British companies pay men more than women.

So, how do we reverse inequality? The solution for the past four decades has been to increase economic growth, so everyone gets more. 

I believe we need to find an antidote for inequality.

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