Political Aspects of the US-China Trade War and its Potential Macroeconomic Impact

The US-China trade war that lasted since 2017 became an important issue of international agenda as such a dispute between the two biggest world economies affects the whole global economy. Nevertheless, the imposition of tariffs as an economic policy in order to reduce the American trade deficit with China has primarily a political meaning. This work studies the trade war between the US and China from a political perspective and analyses its macroeconomic impacts. The objective of the research is to identify the roles of the US as a global and declining hegemon and China as the rising competing power within the framework of the trade dispute. The study will prove the causes of the trade war being primarily political and geostrategic in their nature. For this purpose, the work will implement the hegemonic stability theory and power transition theory. Another aim of this research is to demonstrate the current results of the trade war and its influence on two great powers’ economies. Apart from the consequences in the American and Chinese economies, it also discusses the further transformation of the Trade War from Trump policy to Biden.