Alliances are not limited to wartime situations. On the contrary, most alliances are peacetime affairs. Countries cooperate on matters of transportation, agriculture, and communication. The joint efforts of Canada and the United States in the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Sault Ste. Marie locks are examples.
In September 2018, the Wall Street Journal described the emergence of a trade coalition:
The prospect of resolving the U.S. trade battle with China is fading as the White House presses for a revised North American Free Trade Agreement.
As a new NAFTA nears completion, a strengthened working relationship between Canada, Mexico, and the United States would enable the three countries to more effectively resist Chinese efforts to dominate world markets. Other nations will join this alliance.
A successful coordination of Japan, the EU, and the NAFTA countries would be a diplomatic and economic success.
Chinese firms are able to dump products onto the world market at prices below their cost because they have access to labor at substandard wages. Many Chinese workers are given no choice about where they will work, or about how much they will be paid.
The outcomes are related, U.S. officials say, because relaxing trade tensions with Mexico and Canada — plus a preliminary trade pact with the European Union — make it easier to forge a multilateral front to oppose Chinese trade practices. The U.S., EU and Japan have held meetings on such a strategy last month.
In addition to exploitative labor practices, Chinese firms often receive unfair subsidies from the Chinese government. These companies sell products at a loss, and receive payments from the Chinese government to keep the company profitable.
It is somewhat misleading to call these entities ‘companies’ or ‘firms’ because they are, in essence, a branch of the Chinese government. They are not exposed to market forces. They are not under any pressure to be profitable. They are a tool of Chinese foreign policy, inasmuch as they are used to harm the national economies of other countries.
The horrific working conditions of some Chinese laborers borders on slavery.
What can a coalition of Japan, Canada, Mexico, the United States, and the EU nations do about this situation? Trade boycotts and tariffs seem to be the first line of actions.
If this coalition, approximately representing the free world, can coordinate such trade actions against China, then it may be possible to place enough pressure on China to encourage substantive action.
China, however, is currently set on a program of military buildup parallel with its effort to obtain economic hegemony over a number of smaller nations. China will not readily give up its dream of imperialistic expansion.
