Examining the Real Costs of US Manufacturing Decoupling Strategies

From the 19th century Opium Wars to the Boston Tea Party — the 1773 midnight raid during which American colonists dumped 342 chests of tea from the British East India Company to protest Britain’s monopoly of the tea industry, trade conflicts have been going on since the birth of international trade. In recent years, the trade dispute dominating global headlines has involved the world’s biggest economic powerhouses, China and the US. Exacerbated by the 2019 move by former US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on Chinese imports and the resulting retaliation by China with duties on US imports, such…