Trade rerouting research coauthored by Edmund Malesky cited in Bloomberg Opinion

In the Bloomberg Opinion piece "America’s Trade War With China Should Be a Team Sport," columnist Jonathan Levin writes the U.S. imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada "will achieve little and detract from America's top trade and national security priority: strategically decoupling from Canada."

In the opinion piece, published Feb. 28, Levin cites research on circumventing tariffs conducted by Edmund Malesky, professor of political economy and director of the Duke Center for International Development and his co-authors Ebehi Iyoha, Jaya Y. Wen, Sung-Ju Wu and Bo Feng.

"China’s trade surplus with the world only grew after tariffs against it were instituted in Trump’s first presidency, while the US trade deficit deepened overall," writes Levin. "In some cases, Chinese exports were routed from mainland firms through other countries and into the US. Research using firm and product-level data shows that such rerouting through, for instance, Vietnam wasn’t quite as common as some feared."

Iyoha, Ebehi, Edmund J. Malesky, Jaya Y. Wen, Sung-Ju Wu, and Bo Feng. "Exports in Disguise: Trade Re-Routing During the U.S.-China Trade War." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-072, May 2024.