[buglemanster]

Bottom line here is that in the event of a total trade embargo between the two nations, US growth slows, but China goes into severe recession.

Your conclusion is flawed as you only based your statistics on export data of the US and China. Trade goes both ways.

[endthematrix]

"Trade goes both ways."

Yep. Money and jobs sent - inferior product returned.

[Zhang Fei]

buglemanster: "Your conclusion is flawed as you only based your statistics on export data of the US and China. Trade goes both ways."

Actually, we went through something very similar during the Asian crisis in 1998 when US exports to Asia plummeted as Asian countries went through severe recessions (many are only now back to their GDP levels just before the crisis). And yet the US growth rate barely budged as major economic storms buffetted East Asian economies. Before the crisis, it was a truism that when the US economy gots the sniffles, a lot of foreign economies would get the flu. It now appears to be the case that when foreign economies get the flu, the US economy will get the sniffles. And that applies even to events like a bilateral trade embargo.