- The Trump administration’s tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods went into effect in July. For weeks before that, there was a huge push to import products ahead of the tariffs.
- But once they went into effect in July, imports on the $34 billion of Chinese goods dropped 21 percent from the prior year.
- The trade data on the $16 billion tariff that went into effect will be out in November and September’s $200 billion will be out in December.
China’s latest report on economic growth fell short of expectations, but for those who monitor traffic on the global water highways, the news was not a surprise.
In fact, freight and shipping data over the last several months have been pointing to such a slowdown.
An investor can get an idea of a country’s economic health based on the types of products and the number of containers being shipped to and from its ports at any given time. About 90 percent of the world’s trade in goods is transported in containers on ships across oceans, making maritime activity a key economic indicator.
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