The China Trade War

Post date: Apr 20, 2018 11:44:53 AM

By: Chelsea Inchaurregui, Staff Writer

Posted April 20th, 2018

A trade war is where a country implements tariffs on imports to reduce trade. As a result, the country that has to pay more for those imports will do the same. The issue with this is that the economy of these countries are weakened to a certain extent. For example, with a trade war between the U.S. and China, it’s possible that consumers would have to spend even more money just to get electronics.

In the beginning of March of 2018, President Trump imposed taxes on aluminium and steel. In addition to that, he proposed 25% taxes to nearly $50 billion in Chinese exports. China responded with enacting charges for U.S. products. Soon after, President Trump said taxes will be placed on about 1,300 Chinese products. These “threats” don’t stop there. They kept going on with a couple more proposals regarding these tariffs.

President Trump claims that there is no trade war between the U.S. and China, regardless of the tension between these two countries, but many can argue that it’s evident that there are some characteristics of a trade war that are present (such as mentioned above).

No one likes having to see the word war -- it reminds us of how greed has divided countries in our past, however, we can’t ignore the possible benefits of a trade war. There are varying viewpoints among the Chinese people regarding this discussion. Furthermore, there are some people in China that state that a trade war would pressure China’s economy. This could result in China being more open, allowing for the Chinese people to get ahold of imported goods easier, such as imported automobiles.

Some American business leaders have questioned President Trump’s tariff implementations. Compared to China, there are not many people that have protested against President Jinping’s policies. A reason behind this could be President Trump’s lack of seriousness. He contradicts himself at times and doesn’t communicate accurate responses to the nation and the rest of the world, as seen commonly via Twitter.

In conclusion, there is gray area as to whether a China trade war exists. A trade war would have ups and downs, and the effect would differ in the countries involved. It would most definitely affect the relationship between the two countries and how the world perceives them: that being rivalry.