Clark Howard: This is not a trade war, it’s a trade skirmish

Jacksonville, FL — As China and the United States continue to slap each other with tariffs – Consumer Warrior Clark Howard is telling people to not freak out about what it’s doing to Wall Street.

First, Clark says he doesn’t see this as a trade war, despite what some people might call it.

"We're only at skirmish territory at this point."

According to Clark, this means each side keeps ratcheting things up but then delaying each phase of tariffs for a period of time. This is an effort to put pressure on the other side to make a deal.

He did say people can expect to see a meaningful decline in their 401(k) but it’s only going to be temporary.

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Clark expects the two countries to reach a deal but if they do not, he warns there could be consequences on people’s wallets.

"A lot of things that we buy, we will pay more for. A lot of things American companies sell to China will have problems and maybe have layoffs."

Clark says it will become clear over the next few weeks if certain items will go up because of the tariffs. There have been hints of this with different products over the last year, using washers and dryers as an example.

Clark said the group getting hurt the most because of the ‘trade skirmish’ is American farmers. He says farmers are already suffering because China has historically been a big customer for food manufactured by U.S. farmers.

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