Trump's 'protectionism will fail'

US President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff policy is "bound to fail", as he overestimates the US market's significance for China and lacks the leverage he believes Washington has over Beijing, said a senior US economist.

Trump's tariff weapon will not make the United States great again. Instead, the US "will squander its leadership in global development, finance, and trade and lose competitiveness", Jeffrey Sachs, a world-renowned professor of economics and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

"The protectionism will fail and will increasingly isolate the US in the world economy and politics. There are few countries that will accept Trump's approach, even in Europe," Sachs said.