Commentary
Trade has been a usual tool in “war,” but it has never been a very powerful weapon. From Trump’s trade sanctions on China to Western’s sanctions on Russia, most were ineffective, if not useless. As long as products purchased from China or Russia are not from a monopoly (one single seller) or their supplied products are not to a monopsony (one single buyer), others have an incentive to be uncooperative, and there always exist third parties breaching the sanction creating a loophole. Accordingly, a trade war’s impact on trade might be much less than most commonly believed.
