LSA economists predict that President Donald Trump’s brewing trade war with China could cost the United States 200,000 jobs by 2021, the Detroit News reports. Although tariffs on Chinese products could reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China, those gains would be negated as China retaliates with similar tariffs, said LSA’sDaniil Manaenkov, a forecasting specialist with LSA’s Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, which provides regular forecasts of both the U.S. and Michigan economies. 

With a trade war, Manaenkov said, “information processing equipment is suddenly going to get a lot more expensive, and naturally there will be less investment. Some consumer goods will also get more expensive.” He and fellow LSA economists spoke before state lawmakers during a biannual revenue-estimating conference at the Michigan Capitol.

Click here to read more from LSA economists on the potential impact of a trade war with China.