Macroscope | After the trade war, US-China relations will not be the same again
Neal Kimberley says now Beijing recognises that Trump’s tariff moves – though in the name of fair trade – stem from a change in America’s strategic intent, it, too, is rethinking the bilateral relationship. Neither side is likely to want a return to the old status quo
Last month, Iowa State University estimated that the imposition of tariffs in 2018 on products exported by the state, of which those retaliatory imposts levied by China are a very material part, could cost the Iowan agricultural economy up to US$2.2 billion.
More pointedly, the university report said, previous trade battles such as the Russian grain embargo of the 1980s and the 2009 dispute with China (tyres versus chickens), show that “once trade market share is lost, it is difficult for markets to return to the previous relationships”.