Much Ado about Nothing

Oxford Economics is worried about the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs as he fights back against the People’s Republic of China’s long economic war (trade, intellectual property theft, technology transfer extortions and thefts, etc) against us.

The move to 25% tariffs on imports from the PRC, coupled with the PRC’s answer of tariffs on its imports from us would cost our economy $29 billion and the global economy some $105 billion by 2020, Oxford Economics claims.  The CBO estimates our GDP to be $22.77 trillion; the projected tariff costs work out to 0.1% of our economy.  Taking the global economy as the OECD’s, the 2017 global GDP was some $49.6 trillion; the projected costs work out to roughly 0.2% of the world’s economy.

Oxford Economics sees all of that amounting to a 0.3% reduction in our projected 2020 GDP and a 0.8% reduction in the PRC’s projected 2020 GDP.  The tariff costs are chump change in our economy and the world’s.  Not so much, though, for the PRC: while our economy is burgeoning, the PRC’s already is stagnating.  The tariff costs are only adding to that slowdown.

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