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Economist says comments are over-simplifying US-China trade

President Trump has said the US could save $500 billion by dissolving its trade relationship with China.

Ohio State University Trade Economist Ian Sheldon says Trump is referring to the US trade deficit with China, but he thinks the comments are over-simplifying the trade relationship.

“We’ve been running a deficit for a long time and that deficit was partially exacerbated by the fact that we’re running a very large government budget deficit,” he says. “It’s very simplistic economics on the part of the president.”

He says China is a very important market for US agriculture and the coronavirus pandemic is putting pressure on the phase one agreement.

“The pandemic has made it even less certain that China is going to meet those commitments,” he says.

Sheldon is the Andersons Chair of Agricultural Marketing, Trade, and Policy at OSU.