Free Trade Economists Fail: China Paying for Trump Tariffs – Not U.S.

Free trade economists’ claims for months that the United States would be crippled by President Trump’s tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese products have been debunked by new research that shows it is China paying for the tariffs, not the U.S.

The free trade apparatus of Wall Street, Washington, DC, and the big business lobby repeatedly claimed over the course of the last year that Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods would hurt the U.S. and American consumers.

Research by EconPol Europe reveals that the vast majority, 20.5 percent of the 25 percent tariff is being paid by China while only 4.5 percent is being paid by the U.S.

The research notes that the tariffs will have the intended economic nationalist impact that Trump — and his loyal advisers Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro — were hoping for in that they will reduce the U.S.-China trade deficit by 17 percent and cut down the number of Chinese imports in the U.S.

Trade expert and blogger Alan Tonelson wrote that the study proves Trump should stay strong in his effort to make the U.S. less reliant on Chinese imports.

“So although this study isn’t the last word on the U.S.-China trade wars, it provides important support for the Trump approach purely in economic terms,” Tonelson writes.

“Coupled with America’s vital strategic stake in preventing China from stealing and subsidizing its way to greater global competitiveness in the high tech and advanced manufacturing industries crucial both to U.S. national security and prosperity, it’s a strong signal for the President to stay his current China course – and even to move more explicitly to disengage America from what clearly has been a losing and increasingly...Read More HERE