The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Getting Nervous Over Decoupling from China

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has released a new study warning of the economic costs of trying to decouple from China. “Pulling two huge economies apart will be expensive... [However] full, comprehensive decoupling is no longer unthinkable.” They claim a loss to our GDP of $500 billion. Their computer modelling details various losses: Aviation losses $38–51 billion annually. U.S. semiconductors lose $54–124 billion and 100,000 jobs. Even the loss of Chinese students and tourism takes $15–30 billion out of US services. “Even based on our rough assessment, we can see that the costs of anything approaching ‘full’ decoupling are uncomfortably high.” One can doubt the physical possibility of such decoupling and/or the assumptions built into the study, but not the ‘dollar bill’ message meant to convey a clear warning.