U.S. businesses will thrive

The argument

Proponents of this position argue that the trade war will force China to stop its unfair trading practices such as industrial espionage. Chinese businesses involved in partnerships with U.S. businesses have done things such as making new inventions and innovations and distributing them to Chinese businesses so that they can create better products without having to sink time and money into research. The asymmetry is the point: the research is paid for on one side of the partnership and the benefit is collected on the other. This seriously impedes the ability of U.S. businesses to innovate and be profitable, costing jobs and future growth, and on this argument tariffs finally attach a cost to a practice no partnership agreement had managed to deter. U.S. manufacturing industries, such as textiles, will also benefit. These industries have faced a significant decline due to Chinese competition, and the scale of that decline is what proponents point to: between 2001-2018, the trade deficit with China cost the United States 3.7 million jobs, three-fourths of which were in manufacturing. Making the U.S. more competitive and bringing jobs back to the U.S. will be very beneficial to the United States, since these are precisely the sectors in which the deficit did its damage. The last claim concerns the costs the trade war imposes in the meantime. Any short-term harm that results from the trade war will ultimately benefit U.S. businesses in the long run, because shortages and adversity will provide incentives to focus on innovative and developing creative solutions. Firms that can no longer rely on the cheapest existing supply are pushed to find another way of doing the same thing, and this will ultimately improve the quality of the businesses. Because U.S. businesses will thrive under these pressures — shielded from copying, restored in manufacturing, and pushed to innovate — the trade war is good for the United States.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The trade war will only force China to stop its unfair trading practices if the U.S. wins. This is unlikely because China can last longer since its economy has more room to maneuver than the United States’ economy and its strong central government can mitigate the damage. Also, the intended result of bringing jobs back to the United States is not happening. Instead, those jobs are moving from China to other countries such as Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and the European Union.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The trade war will only force China to stop its unfair trading practices if the U.S. wins. [Rejecting P2] The manufacturing jobs are going to other countries instead of back to the United States. [Rejecting P4] The trade war is hurting U.S. businesses and consumers.