U.S. Importers Lost More In China Trade War: Study

New research suggests the US-China trade war hurt US importers more than their Chinese counterparts, Chelsea Dobrosielski reported for Sourcing Journal on June 16, 2023.

Photo Insert: US importers bore 93% of US tariffs, while Chinese importers paid just 68% of China’s tariffs.

A discussion paper published this month by the Economy, Politics and Society (EPoS) research center at the Universities of Bonn and Mannheim said US importers bore 93% of US tariffs, while Chinese importers paid just 68% of China’s tariffs.

US exporters paid the other 32%. The paper estimated that Chinese tariffs cost Chinese importers $180 million and $510 million per month in 2018 and 2019, respectively, while US tariffs cost US importers $1.21 billion and $2.47 billion per month over the same period.

“We analyzed how the tariff burdens were shared between importers and exporters and got some surprising results,” Lei Li, assistant professor of applied microeconomics at the University of Mannheim and one of the paper’s three authors, said in a statement.

“Such a near-complete ‘pass-through’ is uncommon and astonishing given the power of the US to influence terms of trade.”

Whereas the US imposed tariffs on products with higher pass-throughs, such as electronics, China imported products with lower pass-throughs, such as agricultural goods.

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