If trade disputes between the United States and China spiraled into total export-import bans, both nations’ economies would be devastated. But China’s economy—reliant on exporting products that can be manufactured elsewhere—would suffer far more and for far longer, researchers say.
According to Dartmouth Professor Stephen Brooks, if the United States and its allies imposed “an economic cutoff” on China, damage to its economy would be five to seven times more than damage to the United States’ economy, and its gross domestic product would degrade 15 percent to 51 percent within a year.
Brooks, co-author of “Command of Commerce: America’s Enduring Economic Power Advantage over China,” was among four experts who participated in a Dec. 5 discussion on “critical supply chains in an age of great power rivalry” at the Brookings Institution’s Strobe Talbott Center in Washington….