Tariff changes

The plan to bring back manufacturing to the US can only be done over a few years and therefore it is important that China not collapse. The Chinese economy is in bad shape for a number of reasons but the US cannot replace all that it imports from China, without having time to build up its own industrial base. Here is a quote from The Hill: Trump on China trade switch-up: They would have broken apart. The US does not want to decouple from China but slowly bring manufacturing back home. This is not just a new version of nationalism but a matter of national defense when it comes to certain imports like rare earths. It is also a health concern in regards to pharmaceuticals some critical like antibiotics. This is the view of Trump supporters. The anti-Trump people feel that Trump caved on Chinese tariffs when he saw the market drop. Trump reduced the tariffs from 145% to 30% and shipments to the US from China increased immediately. They also said that Trump did this so the market would go down and his friends could buy low and the sell high when he changed the tariff percentage. The market dropped to 38,000 and rebounded to 42,000. As usual things are in the eye of the beholder.