America v China: why the trade war won't end soon
Video Overview & Insights
America and China are edging closer to signing a deal in the trade war. But that won’t mark the end—the issues at the heart of the conflict will be very difficult to resolve. Read more here: https://econ.st/2qQItl6
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The world’s leading superpowers are locking horns. Over the past 16 months America and China have been trading blows through tariffs on goods. The impact is being felt on industries worldwide. But what is the story behind the America-China trade war?
Taiwan province of China is missing on the map.
So the trade war, what have you guys been looking at? The US doesn’t like that China is growing so fast and set to overtake America as the biggest economy in the world if it hasn’t already by certain measures. Basically China and the US are caught in this race of imposing tariffs on each other so the US slaps a high tariff on certain products then China retaliates.
It’s multiple industries across multiple markets, it’s huge. And I think right now would be a really good time to look at what’s happened how it could impact the world from now on.
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At The Economist, we’ve been covering the trade war extensively Soumaya Keynes is our trade and globalisation editor based in Washington, DC.
How did this whole trade war kick off? How did this whole trade war start? For a long time there have been frustrations that past American administrations had with the Chinese. On the 2016 presidential campaign trail you started to see some really tough rhetoric.
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China’s economic rise has been dramatic. In 1978 China’s GDP at market prices was just 6% of America’s. Last year it had grown to 66%. When considering local spending power China has already overtaken America. This unprecedented growth began with President Deng Xiaoping. He started opening up China’s economy to the world in 1978 and the country quickly became “the world’s factory”. Over the next decade, exports as a share of GDP tripled and by 1988 15% of China’s exports went to America. The World Trade Organisation opened its doors to China in 2001. And it was America that ushered it in.
After joining the WTO, China became an economic superpower. But people had expected the country to also become more like a Western capitalist economy. That didn’t happen. America now claims that China achieved its growth by not playing fair. Are those claims justified?
Another western persoective😢.
The Trump administration has been using tariffs or taxes on imported goods to try to force the Chinese to change their ways. In July 2018 America imposed tariffs of 25% on $34bn worth of Chinese products. That almost doubled the average tariff rate on Chinese imports from 3.8% to 6.7%. And it’s American firms that have to pay that tax. But with every increase from America, came an increase from China. Since the start of the trade war China has more than doubled its average tariff rate. America’s has tripled. The fight has become overtly political because China’s tariffs are hitting President Trump’s voter base. Many counties where Trump won in the 2016 election were here in the Great Plains and these are the counties most affected by China’s tariffs.
As things stand now, a ceasefire in the trade war could be drawing near. The two leaders are hoping to agree on a “phase one” deal soon which could mean some tariffs being lifted The Trump administration wants China to buy more American produce and tighten up their intellectual property rules. If that phase one deal is signed will it be the beginning of the end of the trade war?
Another western persoective😢.
Even if there is a phase one deal there will be a lot of issues still to be resolved. But there’s more to the trade war than just tariffs. America has also imposed restrictions on some Chinese firms especially ones in the tech industry.
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What is not completely explained is that China was in a decline years before the tariff war, how far back is 15 years, communism just doesn't work anywhere in the world
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Its already working. 13 countries have agreed to lower their tariifs on Anerican products sold in their countries including Taiwan. Britain and Grance are already at the table. Canada will have no choice, even if the hard line leftists thats left Canadians left out in the cold by Trudeau and his global elitists agendas. They can agree to to lower their tariifs or we won't lower ours
Anyone that doesn't belive this is highly effective is refusing to look at the numbers, the massive us trade gap, and how it can revitalize industry in America again just doesn't want to. Period.
Buy American
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l'amc on est lààà
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Playing fair ? Really! Has the US ever really played fair? Sounds like a frustrated child. I have never been a fan of China but playing fair is not what they had experienced through out history.
More User Perspectives
Trade war of USA-China domino effects asians
@emillimsiaco4255Now it’s going to be the USA vs everyone in the trade war.. Thanks Trump
@Jonnnyy1Huawei is trash now no one buys. 😂 2025
@wickedCharlotte67America bad..😂 hm kay😂
MAGA 2025🎉
The only reason why us and china are not at military war is the trade between them once severed proxy wars will popup all over the world
@yasmelfl5146Americans have been sleep for 25 years. And we just chose to hit the snooze button for four more years
@chipotlefanatic3713The US says to China: "We will not sell you any more bread".
China responds: "OK, we will not sell you any more flour and we will make our own bread".
Oversimplification
@magiko7176CHINA IS A COMPETITOR. THE 67% of AMERICANS WHO VOTED AGAINST KAMALA HARRIS, SHOULD HAVE DONE THEIR HOMEWORK FIRST AND LEFT THEIR EMOTIONS ON A SHELF SOMEWHERE...
@DavidPerry-pm1hkOnly the people are going to suffer, nothing is cheap now for us in the west, yet dumb people think it has nothing to do with inflation
@Sigma4Life972We watched this in class and I thought it was decent to learn from, do I need to lower my standards? I was unsatisfied with the lack of Chinese interviewers and how they said it wasn't for commercial use though.
@FakenameStevensThe US government was subsidized with slavery
@P-qi6qxJames A Lewis sounds like Elmer Fudd
@nicholasmcdonald1716The west is the same treat different native companies from foreign or immigrant companies too discrimination is unavoidable and only the naive like us that we are only one suffered to believe in american dream just like asian believe in communism in 18th century all are big lies..only butter , wine and women stripper to spread disease that matter because no one had country or anything to be loyal to any more so traitor make more money and help humanity because secret weapon is commodity make us equal without hallucination
@TriPham-j3bEconomist decided not to extend contract with beloved expert Gordon Chang and start exploring in house, their interns, and this video is the result of it.
@jemler3speakCorrection it’s Japan not china
@lokiikecaesarSome historical signifigance but out of date and not revelvant......4 years have passed since this was made...very dated!
@PaulL-hm7czSoy is not just sold to china. Soy is litterly used in almost every food product; chips, fast food, fine dining, breads, powders, and even drinks. Dont let news outlets bs you. Listen to people but look for yourself. Everyone has an agenda
@nathgibs03Why the trade war won't end and probably never will? Easy.Americans and pretty much westerners (but for this context I will just refer to the US )wants win-lose trade.Meaning they want only their side to get the profit while the other party don't .If they refuse to comply,the US use military force.Just like all western nations back then did.Doesn't that say a lot about them.China on the other hand,they also trade,but they tend to have win-win.
@AzizDoufikar2280The bottomline is that the trade-brings-democracy hypothesis is wrong, as proven conclusively by China in the quarter-century since joining the WTO, and earlier if we go back to 1989 when this idea would have been discarded completely had it not been for corporate greed. By itself, trade cannot make a society democratic, and cannot form the institutions of a liberal republic. In fact, it could certainly be convincingly argued, that China has benefitted tremendously from playing by unequal rules and has no incentive to play fairly. The United States and the West in general have deindustrialised tremendously since 1994/1995 (the years that NAFTA and the WTO commenced) with pervasive effects to national security. Freeing trade is great when we are under the same institutional framework and have an impartial arbiter of the rules, for example, within the United States using the federal judiciary as an arbiter — all those assumptions go out of the window when we want a liberal republic and a one-party state to practice fair trade internationally (particularly if the countries in question have size and relative importance that can easily make them geopolitical rivals). We must now recognise we were wrong, operated under mistaken assumptions, and change course radically. Difficult, surely, because we created a monster (a neo-fascist Marxist-Leninist party that was allowed to plunder technology and industry until it attained the status of worldwide runner-up) in the process but nevertheless necessary if we are to preserve liberty in the face of tyranny.
@libertarissimoA very superficial and perfunctory piece. Ended before it went into the serious stuff.
@newaulkTrade War 23.9. Since We sent Commerce Sec to China, China should send identical status emissary to USA., with the same number of staff, staying the same number of days.
@sns1804The US will ban China from using the Windows operating system throughout China. China's economy will also completely collapse.
@lovevn376116% only ok..US ned china to buy bond
@GPDC100Anyone else bothered by how he keeps referring to the United States as America like kids do in elementary school? Did he forget about the rest of us who also live in "America" (i.e. Latin America) and are not part of this embarrassing trade war...
@quietbagelTech 8:10
@mariaabbasii2:20 china ec rise
@mariaabbasiiChina sell illegal chemical and most stuff they build is poor quality and dangerous......they r big lier and criminals.....i really dont understand how usa and canada just dont banned this country and all other criminal country
@findmotivactionchina trade should be 100% illegale since chinese are criminals
@findmotivactionThe US has problems. It wants to make sure the world suffers with it.
@kswong8560Why can’t the USA leave the world in peace? Americans are meddling in the affairs of others and sanction or invade those countries who are not aligned to them.
There’s an American sitcom about this. It’s called “Two broke girls”.
One girl was a rich, wealthy child of an oligarch. That was, until her father was arrested and jailed. She lost everything, and had to work as a waitress to make ends meet.
Don’t worry.
Soon enough the collective population of the West will get to live the sitcom “Two Broke Girls”. And no more military bases around the world. No more billions to Ukraine. No more color revolutions. No more lecturing to the people about what they can and cannot do.
It’s going to be OVER.
中国可以帮助俄罗斯人杀死乌克兰人..但帮助那些杀人的人是错误的..但中国有这个权利..
乌克兰人来俄罗斯不是为了杀死俄罗斯人或轰炸居民楼。世界只向乌克兰人寻求帮助。
泽伦斯基准备好达成和平协议……只要他不必放弃乌克兰领土……我们要求中国不要支持侵犯乌克兰权利的行为。如果中国不谴责侵略，中国就自动支持侵略者
What exactly's China done, Ms Somaya Keynes, thats not only frustrated but riled up the West soooh bad n hard ?
China's defying the normally accepted, implied unwritten rules of global trade n rules based order, Roberto!
Oooh yeeeaah really, Ms S Keynes!
By insisting on not continuing the status quo? The decadent, degenerate, disastrous status quo,?
Is China not the Factory to the world, Ms Keynes, over the past 3 decades in particular?
Indeed, indisputably it has been n continues to be sooh!
Throw all the stats, numbers, n figures into the dustbin, Ms Keynes!
Done! Anyways, China numbers, data, stats are not available at all to global institutions for scrutiny n these stats are all extrapolated, inferred numbers, Roberto!
Sooh why bother?
And how many of the 1.5 bn Chinese pplz hv been pulled out of the abyss, Ms Keynes over the past 3 decades?
Leaving aside the hyper hype n hoopla pptz - custom made for TRP channels - like the Economist London in particular, - strictly between u n me, Roberto, n global MBA audience 1 bn Chinese continue to languish below poverty line n these numbers are being presented by Chinese young immigrants in LSE meets, seminars n conferences, soooh inspiye of the hyper hype buzz of China, China, ( Ch - debt trap- BS) China, this, China tht, miraculous Indian rope trick GDP exponential growth, at break neck speed its a looong way to go for a billion Chinese pplz n the Chinese demography is not shying away from tht uncomfortable harsh reality, instead accepting n telling it as it us upfront to the entire global audience!
And who exactly comprises of this trumpted China Factory? Which corporations?
Largely Amerikan, EU n UK!
Soooh where's the threat, whos being threatened by China?
The limits of ultra cheap Chinese labour milching has ben reached n its time for a new set of equally ultra cheap bonded labour to be given a taste of miraculous hyper GDP growth!
Enter Trump Towers Company, Ms S Keynes!
Trade tariffs or taxes increased on Ch imports, are they not paid by these overseas companies largely n received by their home/base / parent countries?
Instead of being invested in the US - T - bonds?
ETF - bonds?
When are we going to be presented with the breaking news on ETF traded bond scandals /scams, Ms S Keynes?
We're yet to trace, solve the multi billion dollar bearer bond scandal, Roberto!
A Hyderabad - Charminar city - MS n Google among other US mega giants home town - a 5 decade old Shares R n T - agent n stock broking firm was slapped a paltry 2 digit fine in crs, Ms S Keynes for stealing their clients e- shares deposited with them n trading them, a scam detected a decade ago n a known known fact to one n all in the market for a long time!
Rank holder meritorious Chttdd auditor firm - serial n habitual - duplicate n fake share certificate printing Chttd Acct firm, - currency printing licence - ultra priv, boon granted by the market friendly, liberalised economy tomtomming Govt, this n that, all of them!
Why a petty paltry fine for a criminal heist, dacoity, by white collared professionals?
Almighty honourable indeed High court bench worthies, hv been over zealous defendants of such white collared professionals in the liberalised reign over past two decades n chiding the regulator, over unnecessarily harassing the poor victim Chttd auditors!
Besides the intl Media parroting of Islamo phobia, while the proven n undisputable fact being ofcthe present PM beung installed by Islamists n Catholics - esp the Southerners, for they've alwaays had a dusproportionately dominant say in the choice of PM, cabinet n the secretariat, IAS, IFS, MoF, et al since 1947!
Why'd the freight, h'err, tariffs be increased precisely during the slowdown, almost halt in the global trade, Ms S Keynes?
Downsizing the humongous trade deficit, Roberto!
Which inevitably had to be reckoned with n tackled sooner rather than later!
Alternative marine transport routes are being put in place, faster, shorter time
And since u spk of Chinesec threat, why don't u aks the Economist to share the fact of China made chips being entwined in UK nuclear facilities, Ms S Keynes?
Pure jealousy
@karimmunshi4703Watching this in 2023 while china is running record trade surpluses as the US banks collapse 😂
@mikehawk48564:19 What he is implying is that it is right to steal, just not for commercial purposes?
@quemequem666