The US president launched a trade war against countries around the world in the name of reducing the trade deficit. However, when the US service trade industry itself faced the risk of being dragged into the trade war, an alarm was immediately sounded: US jobs were in jeopardy in the trade war.
On April 11 local time, an article pointed out that the “key business area” mentioned in the title refers to the service trade area. It is also true that it “has a huge trade surplus with other countries.”
The so - called “the US suffers in trade” theory does not hold water. The Director - General of the WTO refuted it in an article.
According to the data provided by WTO Director - General Ngozi Okonjo - Iweala, in 2023, the US service trade export volume exceeded $1 trillion, accounting for 13% of the global service trade total. In this area, the US has a trade surplus with most major economies, and the total surplus was close to $30 billion in 2024. In addition, the US has a more obvious advantage in high - value service areas: among them, the annual income from intellectual property royalties and license fees exceeds $144 billion, far exceeding other countries. Statistics show that in 2022, US service trade exports supported 4.1 million high - paying jobs, with an average hourly wage 25% higher than that in the manufacturing industry.
Based on these facts and data, Okonjo - Iweala specially published an article titled “The US Is a Big Winner in Trade” to refute the so - called “the US suffers in trade” theory, and emphasized the huge advantages of the US in the service export area.
The US service trade area may be dragged into the trade war. US media warns: US jobs are in jeopardy!
Given the huge advantages of the US in the service trade area, when China's countermeasures targeted the US film industry and caused the stocks of many US film companies to fall sharply, the warnings from US media were reasonable. After all, the greater the advantage in this area, the more severe the blow when countermeasures are taken.
Once extensive countermeasures against the US service trade industry are taken by multiple countries, in an extreme case, 84% of the total non - agricultural employment in the US will face the risk of unemployment, involving retailers, restaurants of all sizes, hotels, the software industry, telecommunications and Internet service providers, airlines, the logistics industry of truck freight, film production factories, the media, schools, the healthcare industry, legal services, and accounting firms.
The article argues that even if the tariff policy can achieve a certain degree of manufacturing reshoring, the manufacturing jobs created cannot make up for the jobs the US may lose due to the counter - strikes the service trade industry may suffer.
China took the lead in countering the US film industry. Next might be the EU.
On the 10th, China announced that it planned to counter the US film industry in the service trade area by moderately reducing the import volume of US films. After this measure was announced, the stock prices of many US film companies fell sharply. The stock prices of The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. fell by 6.79% and 12.53% respectively on that day.
Coincidentally, the EU is also considering restricting the operations of US banks locally and imposing huge fines on US technology companies. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on the 10th that if the trade negotiations between the EU and the US fail, in addition to taking countermeasures against US goods trade, US service industries such as technology giants will also be targeted.
However, before that, most service industry workers in the US may have already been in a difficult situation of being unable to make ends meet and losing their jobs due to the economic recession caused by the tariff policy.
“We are a service - based economy, so the service industry bears the brunt. Healthcare, education, financial services. Every industry will fall into recession.” - Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics
Shortly after multiple warnings were issued, the previously “flip - flopping” tariff policy was adjusted again. The US Customs and Border Protection announced on the evening of the 11th that the federal government had agreed to exempt electronic products such as smartphones, computers, and chips from the so - called “reciprocal tariffs.”
Financial analyst Hussein Kubeisi pointed out that this marked a “180 - degree turn” in the US government's tariff policy.