The recent drop in Apple's sales reflect the impact of the U.S.- China trade war, and as ISM manufacturing data also fell to the worst it has been in two years. In the past year or so, the U.S. and China have gone back and forth adding new and higher tarriffs until the recent "cease fire" in December. The tarriffs have affected many companies in both the U.S. and China, and this article highlights that we may be more vulnerable than at first predicted due to the hightened uncertainty surrounding the U.S. stock market. However, in the midst of a falling stock market, the White House still remains positive and asserts that the weakened Chinese market will push them to make a deal with the U.S.
Interestingly enough, this article ties into what we have been talking about in class when it comes to Mercantilism in trade. Idealy, trading would cause benefit both countries, however, in this case, the government intervention in the form of tarriffs has affected the U.S. market because of how interdependent certain large U.S. companies are, in this case, with China. For this particular case, I would argue that we are not playing a zero sum game due to the fact that both economies are suffering injuries, even if one of the end goal is to protect U.S. security. I agree that the U.S. must take some measures again Chinese intellectual property theft, but we must also evaluate the consequences that are just staring to arise.
Alas, the problem with "narrow windows of opportunity" is that they're hard to squeeze through. Given everything else going on in the world/country, it will be interesting to see both sides can reach an agreement. If there's anything that game theory has taught us, it's that getting agreement on the *right* institutions is very tricky and not always likely to succeed!