Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 2:00 PM EDT
With U.S.-China tariff levels reaching historic highs and a fragile truce now in place, economic experts examine how the trade relationship has shifted in 2025—and where it might be headed next. What are the strategic goals behind the sweeping tariff measures imposed by both sides? How are they reshaping trade flows, business decisions, and bilateral diplomacy? What lessons can we draw from the past seven years of trade tensions, and how do current developments fit into broader patterns of economic decoupling and strategic competition?
In an interview conducted on May 13, 2025, Claire Reade and Andrew Greenland join PIP fellow Spencer Cohen to explore the implications of recent tariff developments for U.S.-China trade, domestic political pressures, and the global economic order.
Speakers
Andrew Greenland
Andrew Greenland is an assistant professor of economics in the Poole College of Management and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University. He is an NBER research economist and an associate editor at the Journal of Economic Perspectives. His research focuses on understanding the effects of tariffs and trade on the United States in both modern and historical settings. He has published multiple studies on the effects of trade with China on U.S. labor markets, firm behavior, and stock market reactions. This research has been presented at top policy and research institutions including Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, Columbia, Princeton, the Federal Reserve Board, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the National Bureau of Economic Research, among others. His current projects examine the evolution of U.S. trade policy in the 1970s and 1980s, which reshaped the U.S. manufacturing landscape.
Claire Reade
Claire Reade is a senior associate with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). From 2008 to 2014, she served as assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she was responsible for developing and implementing U.S. trade policy toward China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Mongolia. Previously, Ms. Reade served as the first chief counsel for China trade enforcement at USTR. Earlier, she was a senior international trade partner at Arnold & Porter. Ms. Reade is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a frequent speaker on international trade law issues. She received her law degree from Harvard and her master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.
Moderator
Spencer Cohen
Spencer Cohen is principal and founder of High Peak Strategy LLC, an economics and research consulting firm in Seattle, Washington, specializing in international trade, U.S.-China relations, port operations, and regional economic analysis. He works with clients across the United States, including West Coast, Gulf, and East Coast ports; economic development organizations; engineering firms; industry and trade associations; and state and local governments. Dr. Cohen holds a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Washington, where his research examined land markets, local government finance, and local state enterprises in China. He is a National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectuals Program fellow, a 2023 American Mandarin Society fellow, and serves as affiliate faculty in the University of Washington Department of Geography.
