Reflexively Stopping U.S. Trade With China Serves No Purpose (2024)

FAQs

What would happen if the United States stopped trading with China? ›

The costs to the U.S. economy if we were to prohibit domestic companies (impacting companies such as GE, Honeywell, Collins, and Parker Aerospace) from engaging with COMAC would be significant: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that losing access to China's aviation market would translate into a loss of $38 ...

Exports to China support over 1 million US jobs, and Chinese companies invested in the United States employ over 160,000 workers. It helps US companies compete globally. In addition to exporting goods to China, US companies do a significant amount of business on the ground there.

The authors identify four main reasons that led to the greatest trade conflict between the two economies in history associated with intentions of the US: a) to reduce the deficit of bilateral trade and increase the number of jobs; b) to limit access of Chinese companies to American technologies and prevent digital ...

An economic conflict between China and the United States has been ongoing since January 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on China with the goal of forcing it to make changes to what the U.S. says are longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft ...

Disruption to the Global Supply Chain – China still plays a critical role in our global supply chain, with up to 35% of apparel alone being imported into the U.S. from China in 2023. Therefore, if we were to drop 'Made in China' products entirely – the world would suffer from a massive global supply chain disruption.

If China (or any other nation that has a trade surplus with the U.S.) stops buying U.S. Treasuries or even starts dumping its U.S. forex reserves, its trade surplus would become a trade deficit—something which no export-oriented economy would want, as they would be worse off as a result.

China Trade & Investment Summary

U.S. goods and services trade with China totaled an estimated $758.4 billion in 2022. Exports were $195.5 billion; imports were $562.9 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China was $367.4 billion in 2022.

The US–China Trade War: Vietnam Emerges as the Greatest Winner.

What is the US trade deficit with China? ›

The deficit with China decreased $2.5 billion to $22.1 billion in April.

Issue Summary. In recent years, tensions between the United States and China have introduced new challenges—especially related to economic and defense issues. China is a major trading partner for the United States but it is also developing its military capabilities, which poses challenges to the U.S. military.

Why it matters: The United States imports roughly half a trillion dollars in goods from China, including clothing, shoes, electronics, furniture, and household appliances. Those imports help improve the lives of many Americans, particularly those in low-income households who benefit from lower prices on everyday goods.

They have significant economic ties and are significantly intertwined, yet they also have a global hegemonic great power rivalry. As of 2023, China and the United States are the world's second-largest and largest economies by nominal GDP, as well as the largest and second-largest economies by GDP (PPP) respectively.

It could create a contagion impact around the world due to the intertwined nature of global economies with China's economy. According to a report issued by The Economist, almost 20% of Zambia's gross domestic product and 10% of Chile's GDP are based on their export of copper and iron to China, respectively.

China was the United States' third-largest trade partner in 2021. In 2021, 8.6% of total U.S. exports of $1.8 trillion to the World were exported to China and 17.9%of total U.S. imports of $2.8 trillion were imported from China. Mechanical Appliances, Sound Recorders and TV sets were the most traded commodity sectors.

This also decreases job through the decrease in demand from abroad. Trade allows economies to specialize and thus they can produce more goods. The standard of life would fall significantly across the world and many people would fall into poverty. However, this does hurt some countries more than others.

Chinese use of mainland bases would force the U.S. to target them. And the PRC's targets would at least be U.S. possessions and bases in the Asia‐​Pacific, ensuring civilian death and destruction. Both Beijing and Washington would feel pressure to escalate, which would have no obvious stopping point.