Evaluating the Impact of the US–China Trade War

Abstract

We evaluate the impact of the US–China trade war using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of global trade. We conduct ex ante simulation analysis exploring three scenarios to understand how the trade war affects import tariffs, investment, and productivity. The escalation of the trade war reduces gross domestic product (GDP) in China and the USA by −1.41% and −1.35%, respectively. The trade war reduces nearly all sectoral imports and outputs in both countries. To reflect the important role of global value chains (GVCs), we modify the dynamic CGE model with agent‐specific import demands, and we explore the difference between the results for the two models relating to the trade war impacts on GDP and bilateral trade. When GVCs are accounted for, the negative impacts on bilateral trade are more widespread across countries, and world GDP in the modified model is reduced by −$US450 billion. These results suggest that the GVCs play substantial role in determining trade responses at the disaggregated level.