Comments on The Politics and Economics of the U.S.-China Trade War.

B Suresh Narayanan, Universiti Sains Malaysia: b The paper is aptly titled; after reading it I did gain a better understanding of the U.S.-China trade war. The paper begins by giving a stylized version of four lobby groups and argues that the trade war began in 2018 when the U.S. merchandise trade deficit was under 4 percent of GDP, rather than in 2006, when the U.S. merchandise trade deficit was over 6 percent and because the majority coalition on China trade in 2006 was no longer the majority coalition in 2018. The paper also makes it clear that China was not a "victim" in the trade war and may have invited it upon itself by highlighting two instances: non-compliance with WTO regulations and China's technology policy. [Extracted from the article]