Any discussion of the sweeping new tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on Chinese imports last week should start by acknowledging that Washington needed to respond to China's violations of intellectual property rights, including its attempts to obtain technology and trade secrets by forcing American companies to hand them over in exchange for access to Chinese markets.

Hence, the Trump administration does have legitimate complaints against Beijing with respect to intellectual property, forced technology transfer and other Chinese policies that may be responsible for billions of dollars in lost American revenues.

But the question Washington faces is not whether it should respond to these mercantilist Chinese policies that pose a long-term threat to the open trading system, but what actions should the US take in dealing with this Chinese behaviour. In that context, it is doubtful that the across-the-board tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on US$60 billion worth of Chinese imports is the right answer.