Keeping up with the trade war ping-pong

SINGAPORE (Aug 31): The US is a massive consumer of goods imported from China. In 2017, the US ran a US$566 billion ($773.27 billion) trade deficit with the rest of the world.

Some US$375.2 billion — or more than half — arose from the goods deficit with China. In turn, China holds nearly US$1.2 trillion of US Treasury bonds, making it one of the biggest creditors of the US.

The trade imbalance has been attributed by US President Donald Trump to unfair trade practices by China, including alleged intellectual property theft and currency manipulation. And, he has been waging a trade war of sorts, which has financial markets in Asia trembling.

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