China likely to reciprocate against the tariffs, why? They only hurt us, and help them. Placing Tariffs in the other direction makes their prices rise in their country, that doesn’t help them. They keep more industries by keeping prices low
It hurts them because imports will fall and that’s how they make money.
It will just hurt Americans far more.
China just usually buys its agriculture from friendlier countries without making a big fuss about “making China great again” public display. It does occasionally issue explicit bans against countries acting stupid, though. Brazil certainly feels confident to plant much more.
It does help them if they think retaliation will pressure the initial levier (the U.S.) to scale back their tariff schedule. It hasn’t worked out like that but that’s the theory. Also, China isn’t as subject to popular pressure as western democracies. Yes, I agree with you, trade wars are wasteful, harmful, and just a bad idea overall.
They did in 2018. Turns out they import lots of soybean and other foods from the US.
Someone used to tell me one of the largest exports of Panama City Beach when I lived there was mulch. They would ship it to China for fuel apparently. Never would have thought about a smaller town shipping trees half a world away… Talk about inefficient.
