The trade war between the U.S. and China started in January 2018 when President Trump imposed the first set of tariffs. The trade war raged through 2018 and 2019 with tit-for-tat tariffs that finally reached $500 billion of imports on both sides. A kind of truce was reached in January 2020 with the “Phase 1” trade deal that stopped the tariff escalation and required China to buy U.S. agricultural products.
But the latest battle in a new trade war does not only include sanctions, but also technology and national security. The U.S. is using sanctions to slowly strangle the Chinese computer and telecommunications industries. But China is a master of the long play and surely will not sit back and just watch. A next move will follow. I guess, we just have seen the start of the tech war.
Sven Franssen