Editors at National Review Online assess the president’s latest signals about trade with China.
The Trump administration seems at long last to have realized that having a near-embargo in both directions between the world’s two largest economies isn’t such a great idea. The tit-for-tat tariff escalation that had resulted in 145 percent levies on Chinese goods entering the U.S. and 125 percent levies on U.S. goods entering China has been reduced to 30 percent and 10 percent, respectively, for the next 90 days.
These are still high tariffs, and they will still be damaging if they are the final outcome of this misguided policy. For the meantime, at least, it was encouraging to hear Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent say that “decoupling” is not in the interest of either the U.S. or China, and that both countries wish to continue trading for mutual benefit.
That is how trade works, contrary to what President Trump often says. He was just a few days ago praising the reduction in trade with China as a means of making the U.S. richer, a claim that was endorsed by Stephen Miran, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, who knows better.
Bessent’s comments directly contradict the hopes of mainstream media’s favorite tariff advocate, Oren Cass of American Compass, that trade with China would be cut off. Cass takes legitimate concerns about national security and uses them to argue against imports of toys, baby strollers, and clothing. It’s good to see that the administration is not following in his autarkic exuberance.
They also contradict Vice President JD Vance’s insistence on the illegitimacy of trade with China due to “slave labor.” Goods produced with actual slave labor are already prohibited from being imported into the U.S., and Congress passed an additional law in 2021 specifically prohibiting goods produced in Xinjiang province with Uyghur forced labor. In reality, China is a middle-income country that is beginning to lose its low-end manufacturing jobs to other countries with lower labor costs.
