Trade war fallout: Exploring the altered landscape of US wooden furniture imports

Abstract

We examined the effects of the trade war on US wooden furniture imports by product category (kitchen, bedroom, other) and exporting source (e.g., China, European Union, Vietnam) using a two‐stage demand procedure and general nested demand framework. There were significant competitive relationships across exporting countries. However, when both trade creation and diversion were considered, competitive relationships either diminished or became complementary. Consequently, elimination of the trade‐war tariffs would increase imports from China but would also benefit countries like Vietnam. However, results indicate that imports from China would still be significantly less than pretrade war levels if the tariffs are eliminated.