Research Finds U.S. Tariffs on Chinese Goods Didn't Bring Companies Back to the U.S.
KU political scientist, Jiakun Jack Zhang, and his colleague from UC Irvine, Samantha A. Vortherm, found that new U.S. tariffs in 2018 and 2019 had a minimal effect on divestment. More than 1,800 U.S.-funded subsidiaries closed in the first year of the trade war, a 46 percent increase over the previous year. U.S. company exits immediately after the onset of the trade war were not concentrated in manufacturing or information technology, two sectors most directly affected by the trade war.