This opinion piece is wrong on many fronts.
First, much of what China exports are merely assembled in China. The parts are made elsewhere, such as Korea. Thus, this trade war hurts Korea.
Second, more than half of America's soybean exports typically go to China, but Chinese tariffs will shift much of that demand to Brazil, and countries that normally get their soybeans from Brazil have
raced to replace them with U.S. beans. The perverse result is that the prospect of tariffs has temporarily led to a remarkably large surge in U.S. soy exports as the
price plunged.
Third, Trump putting tariffs on steel and aluminum hurt American consumers of finished products, like cars, that will get a price bump of about $2,500.
Fourth, what is the objective of the Trump's trade war? Trump has set up a trade conflict in which there is no way the other sides can accommodate his demands, because those demands are vague and/or incoherent. China's retaliation is designed to
hurt counties that voted for Trump -- which is the only option he's giving the rest of the world.
Fifth, the EU is China's largest trading partner, not the U.S.
China presses Europe for anti-U.S. alliance on trade
So no, trade wars are not good and easy to win and there will be a lot of Americans suffering due to this stupid unnecessary action on Trump's part.
