Reports from American media
According to the report of CNN on the 13th, American enterprises are increasingly worried about the first national railway workers' strike in the United States in 30 years, because once the strike starts, it will mean more empty shelves and closed factories in the United States, and the price of consumer goods is bound to rise.
Bloomberg said that the industrial supply chain and agricultural commodity transportation in the United States all rely on railways. If railway transportation is interrupted, the American economy will lose as much as 2 billion dollars every day. The American Railway Association predicted the possible impact of the strike in a report. The report said that the industries that rely heavily on the railway to transport their products include e-commerce, agriculture, chemical industry, automobile, construction, and coal. If no action is taken, more than 7000 trains may be shut down every day, leading to a shortage of retail goods, a large-scale shutdown of the manufacturing industry, and unemployment.
Government Remedies
Company executives in the logistics industry in the United States have said that the impact of the national railway strike on the economy is far greater than that of the port strike on the west coast. The Biden government is taking measures to avoid the nationwide railway workers' strike this Friday. CNN reported that only a few trade unions have reached an agreement with the railway company, and Biden will have no right to stop the strike after early Friday morning. Only Congress can intervene. A White House official said President Biden and cabinet officials contacted freight rail companies and trade unions on Monday to try to avoid thousands of strikes. According to the report, Biden personally participated in the stagnant labor negotiations, which shows that the White House attaches great importance to the possible strike, because the strike may disrupt the American economy and damage the Democratic Party's chance to retain the majority of the Congress in the November mid-term elections.
Opinions and concerns from the Chinese industry
The possible general strike in the United States on Friday sounded the alarm for the supply of commodities. Lv Xiang, a researcher of the American Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed in an interview with the Global Times that the strike of American railway workers on Friday would probably take place, but probably not nationwide. The impact of the strike depends on the size of the strike. However, Lv Xiang also believes that railway transport has been networked, and a local strike will also have an overall impact, which will undoubtedly be detrimental to the United States' efforts to curb inflation and increase the possibility of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates significantly. The rise of the dollar index will force the global currency to depreciate, which will inevitably affect the exchange rate of the RMB. The rising inflation in the United States and the tightening of the dollar will weaken the market demand in the United States, affect China's exports to the United States and increase the pressure on China's foreign trade.
In addition, the United States is an important exporter of global energy and food. The poor transportation caused by the strike will aggravate the fluctuation of global energy and food prices. Hu Qiu, the chief researcher of Sinosteel Economic Research Institute, told the Global Times that compared with energy, grain trade, mainly soybeans, is more important between China and the United States, which may be affected by the American railway workers' strike. Hu Qiu believes that the United States is an important food exporter in the world, and the strike may bring about fluctuations in global food prices. However, Hu Qiu said that this kind of impact will occur in the supply chain, not the production side, so this kind of impact will be local and short-term.
Lv Xiang also believes that in view of the complex and far-reaching impact that the American railway workers' strike may bring, the Biden government is bound to take various measures to prevent this situation.
Comments of this commentator
Whether from China or American society. they all have negative views on this strike. We think it is too much concern. First, there are not only railways but also inland rivers in the United States that can replace them. Second, strikes and parades in Europe and the United States are very common. There is a good process that will not cause confrontation. All we want is to meet the needs of various industries and reach a perfect agreement every time. Finally, the mid-term elections in the United States are approaching, and at the same time, the United States needs to show strong competitiveness in China and Russia. they will be cautious and cautious in dealing with domestic stability. Since the government hopes to promote peace as soon as possible, it will strive to eliminate the impact of this strike and reach a new compromise as soon as possible.
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