The US-China Trade War

Micah Jaena, Writer|September 13, 2019

     The US and China Trade War have been going on since March 2018, and both countries still haven’t come to an agreement and settled their disputes yet. This trade war has led to our country’s president, Donald Trump, to begin putting tariffs on China’s goods. He first started a 10% tariff then later increased it to 25% due to the lack of China’s cooperation. These events have put great tension and conflict between both economic powerhouses, China and the US. With all of this commotion and tension, Henrietta Treyz of Veda Partners said in a note on Monday, “she expects with 95% probability that the tariffs will go into effect on Sept. 1.” This leads to many people skeptical if this trade war will ever end, or if it will start something more than a trade war.

     China, on the other hand, has increased tariffs on US autos from 12.6% to 42.6%, which was a counter towards Trump’s actions. China has now begun to come up with other ways to make up for the loss of income, China’s State Council said, “it would encourage commercially struggling malls, stadiums and old factory zones to be transformed into commercial complexes, gyms, and entertainment centers.” This is due to China’s economy being “domestically driven” , which means they are able to thrive within their country nationally, but if they begin to follow this path it will hurt their economy and country as a whole in the long run. China has also hurt the US-made company, Apple, which is one of the leading multinational companies in technology. 

     Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, had a meeting with Trump about the trade war between the US and China, and the tariffs that have begun to affect Apple Co. Trump had a few comments from the meeting and stated,“ And one of the things, and he made a good case, is that Samsung is their number-one competitor, and Samsung is not paying tariffs because they’re based in South Korea.” Samsung, another leading multinational company in technology might gain an advantage over Apple. This is because Apple will begin to pay more for the manufacturing of their products. Now, since China’s tariffs will be in full effect when September 1 comes, it will hurt Apple due to most of its products being manufactured in China. Apple will begin to look at “moving more of its manufacturing elsewhere”. 

     With all this tension rising and the United States and China’s economies being hurt, there still hasn’t seemed to be any type of agreement just yet. Both countries will remain on putting extra or increasing tariffs on each other. China will hope to endure and last longer through this trade war against the US,  until the US surrenders and pulls back its tariffs on China. Trump and its administration will remain strong through this whole trade war and possibly increasing tariffs as the months go by. Though, all of these negotiations and conflicts not getting us any closer to an agreement or meeting line between the two economic powerhouses, who knows who will be the last man standing at the end. 

 

Sources:

  1. Egan, Matt. “Trump’s Trade War with China Is Starting to Get out of Hand.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Aug. 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/05/economy/trade-war-china-yuan/index.html.
  2. He, Laura. “China Just Released Even More Evidence That the Trade War Is Hurting Its Economy.” CNN, Cable News Network, 14 Aug. 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/14/economy/china-economy-slowdown-tariffs/index.html.
  3. Re, Gregg. “Trump Warns China against ‘Another Tiananmen Square,’ Says Tim Cook Made ‘Compelling’ Tariff Case.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 19 Aug. 2019, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-china-apple-tim-cook-tiananmen-square.