Over the past 20 years, US imports from China have actually been driven by demand from US consumers and retailers

The United States is now complaining about its external deficit with China. However, we should remember that in the 1990s, US consumers and retailers wanted to obtain lower prices, and to this end replaced their US suppliers with Chinese suppliers. So it was initially in the interest of the consumers that the United States decided to have an external deficit with China. This also shows: That the reorganisation of production with a shift to Chinese suppliers started there more than 20 years ago, and it will therefore be almost impossible to change now; As a result, that the right strategy is not to impose tariffs on imports from China, but to ask China to open its markets to be able to export more to China.