My name is Daniel, I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and an now a writer who has published

three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                                           Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was going to cut off trade with

nations that did trade with North Korea. This obviously would include China which accounts for 80 percent of all

of North Korea's imports. Well, all nice and fine. I have said long before Trump ever became a candidate that the

United States should start to get itself off of its dependency of China. But for the last 25 plus years the economies

of the United States and China have become so intertwined that this may now be next to impossible. China now

accounts for 80 percent of all the toys in the United States, 20 percent of all our clothes are made in China, and

20 percent of all electronics are made in China. These figures do not include other categories where China has

exported considerable consumer items to the United States. So with all of this, how can the United States cut

off trade with China? This would need a carefully coordinated plan and in fact would take time to change the

long list of products being made in China to either being made in the USA or being made in a country not

controlled by China. This is easier said than done because this will be extremely painful for the American

consumer and worse will mean that Americans will no longer be able to so easily find the products they want

because they are currently being made in China at present. Even if such a plan were put into effect in stages, it would

still mean a lot of empty shelves in so many stores, and those consumer goods that are left would go up in price because

the costs of making products in the USA and other First World countries would mean that such products would

cost more. To cut off trade with China would also mean going against World Trade Organization rules, and the

U.S. government would have to change a number of its own laws to even gradually cut trade with China.

Interestingly enough, former U.S. President Barack Obama actually has helped U.S. industries expand and

make many more American products than any president before him in an effort to boost American employment

and offset our growing dependence on China. Will Trump do the same?