The U.S. will win

The U.S. is likely to win the trade war. This means it can protect jobs and force China to stop abusing it via China’s unfair trade policy. The U.S. has a significant trade deficit with China meaning that the U.S. buys more items from China than China does from the United States; with the surplus of goods in the world, the buyer has more power.^[1] As a result, there are more imports that the U.S. is able to place tariffs on and that China’s economy is more vulnerable than the United States’. If the U.S. tariffed all Chinese imports the effect on China’s economy would be far more damaging than if China tariffed all the U.S. products it imports. If they continue in a tit for tat exchange, eventually China will experience a huge economic shock and damage. This means the U.S. has more leverage in forcing concessions from China and can ultimately get what it wants, as China would never follow the war through to this conclusion.

[P1] The U.S. buys more from China than China buys from the United States. [P2] The U.S. has more imports that it can place tariffs on. [P3] This means the U.S. has more leverage in forcing concessions from China and will win the trade war.