Fukunari Kimura: This paper uses a modified version of an Eaton and Kortum (2002) model in the multi-country, multi-sector general equilibrium setting and simulates possible effects of the imposition of high tariffs against imports from China by the United States and trade wars between the two countries. This is a timely paper showing the possible devastating cost of protectionism. The simulation technique is still relatively rare in the international trade literature, but this is the right way to use it.
Since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, we have been plagued with uncertainties in the international economic order. We have gradually learned that even President Trump cannot implement all the policies posted from his Twitter account. We still cannot predict the direction in which U.S. trade policy is heading because Trump's opinions originate from an old-fashioned 1980s pre-globalization understanding of trade (or even from a few centuries...