The Current State of the United States-China Trade War

The United States-China trade war has been a hot topic in the media for the past year or so. The trade war has been ongoing since early 2018, back and forth between China and America and it initiated when President Trump opened a government probe regarding China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property. Recently, there have been a great number of discussions among the U.S. and Chinese officials regarding the war, leading to hope for peace in the future.

For the past year, since January of 2018, President Trump has been imposing tariffs on goods imported from China. Throughout 2018, tariffs were imposed on solar panels, steel imports, and aluminum imports. In April 2018, China struck back with tariffs on nearly $3 billion of U.S. imports. As tariffs on goods increase, both China and the U.S. will experience a decrease in exports. The gross domestic product (GDP) is shown to be decreasing as more and more tariffs are imposed on imports. Essentially, this war has no real winner. It will have negative effects on the global economy as well as the economic welfare of China and the U.S. Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s top economic adviser, told reporters on November 27, 2018, “There’s a good possibility we can make a deal. Things have been moving very slowly between the two countries.” At that point in time, it was unclear whether or not to expect a deal between the countries any time soon.

U.S. delegates have recently gone to Beijing to discuss ways to come to an agreement. There are discussions planned for the end of January and beginning of March. Both sides are showing the willingness to compromise in order to solve the problem, including President Trump. In a tweet from December 4, 2018, President Trump wrote, “The negotiations with China have already started. Unless extended, they will end 90 days from the date of our wonderful and very warm dinner with President Xi in Argentina.” President Trump’s tweets and statements made by other U.S. officials show that progress is being made each day, and an end to this war should be expected to come in the near future.

Officials have taken great strides towards peace between the U.S. and China over the past month or so. There is hope that soon, peace and agreement will be restored and tariffs will stop being unfairly imposed. More plans for discussion and negotiation between the nations are being created each day, ensuring that an agreement will be made sometime in the future.