The problem with squeezing this balloon is that there aren’t all that many other places for the tariffs to go. China typically imports about $120 billion of goods from the U.S. each year, of which a nominal $50 billion are currently subject to retaliatory tariffs. Under the lists issued by China’s Ministry of Commerce, roughly a third of the total was imposed on agricultural goods such as soybeans, animal feed, grains and tobacco, worth around $17 billion before tariffs were imposed in 2017. The biggest pot of money out there is in petroleum and minerals, which accounted for about $18 billion in imports before tariffs were imposed. Industrial machinery accounts for about $13 billion, and a decent slice of the $11 billion plastics and chemicals industry is exempt from the current levies.

Source: Washington Post April 16, 2019 06:00 UTC