US economic expert expresses concern over US-China trade war

Commenting on the rising trade conflicts between the United States and China, a US economic expert said that trade barriers are 'detrimental' to both consumers and workers.

"Economists generally believe that tariffs or other trade barriers are detrimental to consumers, as they increase the prices of goods consumed domestically," said Nitya Pandalai Nayar, an assistant professor in the department of economics at the University of Texas in Austin, as reported by China's Xinhua News Agency on Thursday.

"Recent research has highlighted that policy uncertainty can also have negative welfare effects for consumers," she added.

She further claimed that the new trade tariffs would result in 'trade shocks' for the workers across the world.

"There is a broad consensus among economists that there are aggregate gains from trade, and in that sense, trade barriers are detrimental to consumers and the aggregate economy," Nayar said.

She further noted that the US has a bilateral trade deficit with China only in goods and not in services.

Earlier on Wednesday, China threatened tariffs of its own on 106 US products, including on soybeans, cars and some airplanes in retaliation to US trade tariffs, imposed upon 50 billion dollars of the Chinese imports.