Peter Schiff Says China Is the 'Clear Winner' of Trump's Trade War: Americans Are 'Paying Higher Prices' While Beijing's Goods Surplus Has Soared

Veteran investor Peter Schiff said Tuesday that China has emerged as the winner of President Donald Trump‘s trade war, arguing tariffs narrowed the bilateral deficit with China but did little to fix the broader U.S. trade imbalance.

Our Overall Goods Trade Deficit Has Barely Improved’

“China is the clear winner of Trump’s trade war,” Schiff said in a post on X.

He added that the tariffs did reduce the U.S. merchandise deficit with China, but the country’s broader goods trade deficit “has barely improved” despite Americans paying higher prices, while China’s overall goods surplus “has soared.”

China is the clear winner of Trump's trade war. While his tariffs succeeded in reducing the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China, our overall goods trade deficit has barely improved, despite Americans paying higher prices. Meanwhile, China's overall goods surplus has soared.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) September 8, 2026

Trump’s tariffs have cut the bilateral deficit with China by a third to $73.9 billion in the first half of 2026, according to Census Bureau data.

The broader U.S. goods trade deficit widened to $118.8 billion in July, the widest gap since March 2025, as capital goods imports, primarily computers, semiconductors, and AI hardware, jumped 11.3% to $140.1 billion.

Oxford Economics attributed the surge to “relentless business spending on high-tech goods associated with the AI buildout,” a category the administration has largely avoided taxing.

China’s Surplus Has Kept Climbing

China’s overall trade surplus reached nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025, growing three times faster than global goods trade, according to an article published last month by former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.

China’s exports rose 25% year over year in August, up from 23.9% in July, Reuters reported, citing customs data .

Washington Is Pushing Back

Last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged G20 nations to reconsider their trade ties with China, saying “the world cannot have a China with a $1.2 trillion trade surplus.”

At the meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, the U.S. and its allies issued a joint statement urging countries with excessive external surpluses to end policies that “result in an overreliance on exports for growth” and cause harmful global spillovers, marking a rare 19-to-1 consensus against Beijing, with China standing as the lone dissenter.

Trump is separately weighing an additional 7.5% tariff on Chinese goods, according to an AP News report, even as the two countries work to preserve a fragile trade truce ahead of a planned meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping later this month.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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