The Denver Post

There would be far more losers than winners

- By Thomas Biesheuvel

In the brewing trade war between the U.S. and China, the list of losers already outweighs the winners.

Here are some of the businesses affected on both sides of the Pacific.

Loser: America’s Midwest farmers

The Chinese tariffs are a huge blow to American growers, especially those in Midwestern states that Trump needs to win re-election in 2020. China is the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans. The trade is worth about $14 billion. Soybean prices dropped as much as 5.3 percent in Chicago, the most since July 2016.

Winner: South American growers

Brazil and Argentina are the main competitor­s to U.S. growers in the market for soybeans and corn. They’ll be eager to pick up any lost business, but they won’t be able to completely replace U.S. trade.

Loser: Tech companies with Chinese factories

The U.S. tariffs target the highend technology products made in China. That could mean that companies like Apple and Lenovo

China. That could mean that companies like Apple and Lenovo Group that operate significan­t Chinese production bases face higher costs or supply-chain disruption. The biggest blow by far is to almost $4 billion worth of flat-panel TV screens, according to Bloomberg Intelligen­ce. Loser: U.S. automakers (including Tesla)

China plans to slap tariffs on most vehicles including electric cars. Tesla is at particular risk as it relies on American-made vehicles for all its Chinese sales. Other U.S. carmakers such as General Motors and Ford Motor also manufactur­e in China.

One silver lining: Amer-

ican automakers that import electric vehicle batteries from China were spared from the U.S. tariffs. Batteries for items like power tools, watches and smoke alarms were hit instead. Winner: U.S. metalworks

The latest round of proposed U.S. tariffs target several specific categories of steel and aluminum made in China. That’s on top of duties announced last month, meaning that some forms of those products will face a 50 percent fee to reach the U.S., further boosting prices for some products. Loser: Generic drugmakers

Though the U.S. tariffs target Chinese drug makers, those on the losing side may be American pharmaceut­ical companies that make generics

such as Mylan NV. They’ll face having to pay more for raw ingredient­s, such as insulin used by diabetics and the anti-allergicre­action drug epinephrin­e. Loser: Chinese meat lovers

China is by far the world’s biggest buyer of soybeans, which are mostly crushed and fed to pigs. The soy tariffs could ultimately drive up costs for Chinese pig farmers and meat prices for 1.3 billion citizens. Loser: South Korea

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said growing trade protection­ism and trade conflict between the U.S. and China could hurt the Korean economy, and he urged the country to prepare.

The nation sells huge volumes of parts and components that go into China’s final products.

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