Donal Trump reacts to the new airstrike in Syria, in Douma, with chemical weapons and China assesses the potential impact of a gradual depreciation of the yuan as an instrument of pressure in the trade confrontation with the United States, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the situation.
CHEMICAL ATTACK OF ASSAD AND US MISSILES
The night offered new ideas, unfortunately all belligerent, on the international front. A rocket attack took place overnight against the Tayfur airbase near Homs in central Syria. Damascus - through the state agency Sana - speaks of "American aggression" but the Pentagon denies it. And as the hours pass, the Syrian accusation, also supported by Moscow, turns against Israel. Tension has skyrocketed after the new chemical attack in the Douma area, an area east of Damascus and part of eastern Ghouta, a pocket that has now ended up in the hands of the regime. One hundred victims, one thousand wounded, many women and children, an unknown number of intoxicated. On Sunday morning, the American president fired his first broadside on Twitter, calling Assad "an animal. There will be a high price to pay." The offensive does not stop at the first words of indignation: the United States and eight other member countries of the UN Security Council (Great Britain, France, Poland, Holland, Sweden, Kuwait, Peru and Ivory Coast) have asked an emergency meeting, which is expected to be held on Monday afternoon, according to diplomatic sources. While an administration source lets it be known that the White House does not rule out retaliation against Assad: a missile raid against targets of the Syrian regime
TAX WAR AND YUAN DEVALUATION
On the side of the other war, the commercial one with China, according to sources cited by Bloomberg, Chinese officials are conducting a study to evaluate the weapon of devaluation in the negotiations with the US, which does not mean that the authorities will proceed with a devaluation of the Chinese currency, a measure that would require the go-ahead from Beijing's leaders. However, the dossier under study would follow a double strategy: on the one hand, to use the devaluation of the Chinese currency as a weapon of pressure on the US in the ongoing trade negotiations; on the other, to evaluate the impact of this same devaluation on Chinese exports. In fact, a devaluation could generate waves of negative instability such as those already experienced by Beijing in 2015 when it surprisingly devalued the Yuan by 2 points. In practice, the repercussions could be worse for China than for the US.
The yuan reacted by erasing early gains on Monday morning, shedding 0,1% to 6,3110 to the dollar in onshore trading.
