Sawt Falasteen - Shanghai finance workers worry after front-row seat to tariff turmoil

After equities tanked at the beginning of the week, the US president on Wednesday paused the sweeping tariffs he had introduced on most countries.

But he increased levies on China to 125 percent, citing a "lack of respect" over Beijing's introduction of retaliatory duties.

At lunchtime on Thursday in central Shanghai, the news didn't appear to be disrupting people's enjoyment of a warm spring day -- but asked whether it had been an interesting week at work, a woman who gave her name as Catherine laughed.

"Every night Trump sends out a social media post, then the market goes up or down... us finance professionals are getting first-hand experience of this," she said, standing in front of a bronze-coloured statue of a bull charging.

Shanghai lost over seven percent on Monday, though it has subsequently clawed back some of those losses.

"We think (Trump's) words and deeds have attacked all our financial systems, especially the global stock market," a fellow worker surnamed Zhang told AFP.

"He is a hugely unpredictable, uncertain factor, and this is a very big risk point from an investment perspective."

- 'Just emotional rage' -

The Chinese government on Thursday urged the United States to meet it "halfway", but the stand-off currently shows no sign of de-escalating.

Catherine said that at this point the exact figure of the constantly rising tariff percentage made little difference.

"As soon as (Trump) put 60 percent on, the trade relationship is over, so if he puts 100, over 100 percent on, that's just another number, it's just him expressing his emotional rage," she said.

Zhang said that although she hadn't noticed any effect on her own life yet, the whole economy would eventually be impacted because of the importance of foreign trade to China's growth.

Overseas shipments represented a rare bright spot in a sluggish economy last year, with the United States as the top single country buyer of Chinese goods.

"I hope there will be a mutual rejection of tariffs, that it can be negotiated as soon as possible, and that the negotiations will end well," Zhang said.

Semi-retired Arthur Zheng, who was taking his dog Charlie for a stroll in a pram, said he thought China could ultimately thrive on the competition.

"If he raises (tariffs), we will also raise them... and everyone's costs will get higher and higher," he said.

"But I think for everyday Chinese people... most things are not imported," he said, gesturing at the pink floral shirt his dog was wearing.

"It's all domestically produced, we're self-sufficient."

The 57-year-old held no animosity for the US president.

"I think this guy is a hero," he said animatedly.

"The world needs someone to stir things up like this. But I hope he's able to guide things in a positive direction -- you don't want him to stir and stir, stir the whole world up and then just stop at that, that's not ok."

D.Khalil--SF-PST