How will EMs respond to rising imports from China?

Emerging markets’ imports from China have surged since 2019 and this is likely to continue as punitive US tariffs push Chinese exporters to look to alternative markets. EM governments have, so far, been relatively restrained in their response to this rise in imports. But the US’s turn to protectionism may change their thinking. Those EMs that have large manufacturing sectors and are relatively less dependent on China for export demand are most likely to take steps to protect domestic industry – though in a much more targeted form than across-the-board tariffs.