The United States of America has long been a beacon of freedom and economic prosperity for the rest of the globe. However, events in the past weeks have started a discussion on whether the United States will continue to hold this title. 

     President Trump has long spoken of the United States maintaining an unfair trade position with the Chinese Government even before he took office. The president made addressing the situation with China one of the key economic facets of his 2016 run. Trump’s handling and work with the economy had long been applauded by the American public; however, since this so called “Trade War” has gotten underway, compliments for the president’s economic work have vanished overnight. 

     China and the United States have battled on the economic front for decades, with recent numbers showing the Chinese currently winning the fight to maintain the world’s largest economy after producing $25.3 trillion in 2018. In that same timeframe, the United States had the world’s third largest economy, producing $20.5 trillion, and finishing behind both China and the European Union. 

     It’s often hard to understand and develop a connection to numbers and figures alone. So, here are what those same figures above have meant for the United States. In an October 2018 report, the Economic Policy Institute recorded a loss of 3.4 million jobs between 2001 and 2017 due to Chinese economic practice. A declining American economy is not good for the P.R. of the American government or for Wall Street, but an American economy on the decline could prove catastrophic for millions of members of the working class in industrial and other various blue collar positions. 

     Although quarrels between the United States and China will have obvious impacts on each other’s respective nations, the trade war is also having impacts across the globe. In Japan, the country experienced its first capital spending loss in two years with a 6.9% reduction. Meanwhile, South Korea is in the midst of 13.6% decline in exports this year because of the situation. Disagreement with Washington has also led to further discussion and an expanded partnership between Beijing and Brussels. 

     The United States must remain an attractive place to do business, and various pieces of legislation providing tax cuts for a wide array of both domestic and foreign companies have begun to do that. 

     However, a successful economy consists of a combination of both imports and exports, and the creation of a tax on over $200 billion dollars of Chinese goods seems to counter that idea. The White House’s continued implementation of numerous tariffs against the Asian superpower harm the American consumer who has to undergo a price increase on products and the American producer who is not able to create and sell products at the same rate able to be done across the Pacific. 

     In conclusion, although laced with good intentions, the Trump administration’s economic plan on dealing with China is proving extremely ineffective as the government, stock market, and the American people appear as though they will have to suffer through the consequences of these actions for years to come.