A prolonged trade war between the United States and China would harm Iran’s economy by pushing down global oil prices, the chairman of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce said on Saturday.
Majid-Reza Hariri told the Iran Chamber of Commerce’s portal that if the tariff war drags on, China’s exports would decline, reducing its demand for oil and consequently depressing global prices – “which would be to our detriment.”
He said he did not expect the tariff conflict to last indefinitely, since “continuing this situation would be inflationary for the US economy.”
Hariri added that analysts had long predicted a major confrontation between Washington and Beijing, but that under US President Donald Trump, “the conflict has so far taken an economic form.”
“China is a large and powerful country and has risen to confront this policy,” he said. “But the two economies are deeply interdependent – the US needs China for consumer goods and rare minerals for its high-tech industries, and China does not want to lose its huge market in the United States.”
Hariri said he expected the eventual outcome of the trade dispute to be a “win-win agreement” for both sides, adding that the US would be unable to sustain high tariffs in the long run because they would “create shortages and price increases in the American market.”
“Even a 0.25% rise in US inflation could become politically explosive,” he said.