The US economy lost $7.8 billion in 2018 due to trade wars, according to a new study by National Bureau of Economic Research authored by a team of economists at the University of California Berkeley, Columbia University, Yale University and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
The study analyzes the impacts of the 2018 trade war on the US economy. Last year, imports from targeted countries declined 31.5 percent, while targeted US exports fell 11 percent. The study has found that annual consumer and producer losses from higher costs of imports were $68.8 billion, accounting for 0.37 percent of GDP. “After accounting for higher tariff revenue and gains to domestic producers from higher prices, the aggregate welfare loss was $7.8 billion, 0.04 percent of GDP,” the study said.