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What is the impact of the retaliatory tariffs by China on the soybean industry?

Abbreviated Question: 
What is the impact of the retaliatory tariffs by China on the soybean industry?
Answer: 

There is a lot in this question to digest:  the trade war, impacts by farm size, and the effectiveness of government support.  For the soybean market, the U.S.-China trade dispute did have a significant impact.  Roughly half of U.S.

Gain from trade when prices are distorted?

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Gain from trade when prices are distorted?
Answer: 

Indeed, one answer to a fundamental question in international trade -- why do countries trade? -- is that specialization based on comparative advantage leads to gains from trade for all countries. This same principle also applies at the individual level: I completely specialize in producing and selling educational “goods”, and I buy everything else from others. And I am better off relative to being self-sufficient -- producing everything myself. Gains from trade! 

Do Trump’s new tariffs affect goods made in China but not sold from China?

Abbreviated Question: 
Do Trump’s new tariffs affect goods made in China but not sold from China?
Answer: 

Trumps tariffs are collected by U.S. customs officials when Chinese goods are imported into the US. They are not collected on goods imported from Japan. However, the tariffs have created worldwide perturbations and there may be modest second round  impacts on all market prices. 

Any real world examples of comparative advantage?

Abbreviated Question: 
Any real world examples of comparative advantage?
Answer: 

Prices will drive the system. For example Ireland has a comparative advantage in cheese and butter due to climate and a large amount of land suitable for dairy cows.  China has a comparative advantage in electronics because it has an abundance of labor. With the removal of the milk quota and the opening of trade between China and Ireland, Irish dairy farmers will experience higher milk prices and will expand diary production. Milk products from Ireland will be sold to thousands of retail outlets in China.

Are there any positive effects of applying tariffs?

Abbreviated Question: 
Are there any positive effects of applying tariffs?
Answer: 

Tariffs, like many government policies, have both costs and benefits.  As your questions points out, we have heard much about the costs of tariffs in the ongoing trade disputes.  But there are also benefits that accrue.  For example, the U.S. steel and aluminum industries will benefit from the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, as some U.S. companies shift some of their steel and aluminum needs to U.S. suppliers due to the tariffs and the impact the tariffs have on the relative costs of U.S.

Are there any studies that address the weighted effects of different causes for loss of manufacturing jobs?

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Are there any studies that address the weighted effects of different causes for loss of manufacturing jobs?
Answer: 

You can try

David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson, 2016. "The China Shock: Learning from Labor Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade," Annual Review of Economics, vol 8(1).

or more a non-technical analysis see

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/business/economy/more-wealth-more-job...

What if the U.S. renegotiated or canceled its international debt?

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What if the U.S. renegotiated or canceled its international debt?
Answer: 

US government debt is considered the safest asset in the world. The US borrows at a low interest rate while it lends at a higher interest rate, an “exorbitant privilege” sometimes resented by the foreigners. Over the past two decades, a higher rate of return on its external assets (mostly risky securities held by US investors) relative to its liabilities (mostly US treasuries held by foreign central banks, including China and Japan) has cumulatively earned hundreds of billions of dollars for the US economy as a whole. With a risk of default on US treasuries, this can no longer hold.

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