US, China should reconcile instead of creating separate supply chains: Satya Nadella

Microsoft corp’s chief executive officer (CEO) Satya Nadella raised concerns about the lack of trust between the United States and China affecting economic growth. Nadella was present in Davos for the World Economic Forum 2020 when he said that the US and China need to reconcile rather than create separate supply chains for every country.

Nadella was a little apprehensive about the significance of US-China ‘phase one’ trade deal terming it ‘insufficient’. He also commented on Trump administration’s plan to restrict 5G operations of Huawei and pressurising other countries to do the same. Nadella said that countries need to realise that they will benefit more from a unified internet system rather than a bifurcated one.

Concerns over Huawei 5G

In November, the United States had urged Canada not to use Huawei 5G technology citing security threats and said that it would jeopardise intelligence sharing between the two countries. Robert C. O’Brien, the National Security Advisor to the US President Donald Trump, talking to the reporters at a security conference in Halifax, had called the company “Trojan Horse”.

O’Brien said that letting the company in Canada or other western countries will help China profile everything including health record, banking record, and social media post. He further added that China will get to know everything about every single Canadian.  

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But Washington has been making amendments to repair the trade relations with Beijing and recently announced that they have removed the label of ‘currency manipulator’ imposed on China before both countries signed the ‘phase one’ trade deal. The US treasury department, in a statement, said that it assessed China’s currency practices and the developments over the last several months, in an apparent reference to the impending deal.

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The treasury department submitted the semiannual report on macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of 20 major trading partners. Though it has removed the label of ‘currency manipulation’, the report found that 10 countries merit close attention to their currency practices. Other nine countries placed on the monitoring list are Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, and Vietnam.

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(With inputs from agencies)