In a New York Times op-ed on Friday, Eswar Prasad, senior professor of trade policy and professor of economics at Cornell University, pointed out that the U.S. is strong while the rest of the world is in “a deep economic funk,” enabling it to weather a tariff war better.

“No matter the virtues of these policies, they could end up hurting other countries a lot more than they hurt American consumers, making the United States look like a winner,” he wrote.

Top CEOs have already warned that tariffs would translate to price hikes for consumers. And bond yields have surged as the prospect of stickier inflation prevents the Federal Reserve from lowering rates faster.

But Prasad noted that unlike other top economies, the U.S. has demonstrated strong productivity growth, which could lessen the blow of tariff-driven inflation should that improvement continue.

Beijing’s top trading partners are poised to impose barriers that would prevent cheap Chinese exports from flooding their economies. And Trump will likely seek to close loopholes that allow China to dodge tariffs, such as diverting exports to countries like Vietnam and Mexico before reaching the U.S., Prasad predicted.

“The days of Chinese companies like Shein and Temu sending packages to the United States of small, individual purchases that are priced low enough to avoid being subject to tariffs are almost certainly numbered,” he said.

“The Trump tariffs will certainly force other countries to be creative in dealing with him,” Prasad said. “Given their economic realities, they may have few other options.”

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