Coronavirus outbreak will speed up US-China ‘decoupling’ more than the trade war - Milken Institute analyst

CNBC reports that the ongoing coronavirus outbreak is speeding up the so-called "decoupling" between the U.S. and China more than their trade war did, according to an analyst from the Milken Institute.

"We talked about China and the U.S. decoupling. The coronavirus more than the trade war has sped some of that decoupling as countries, as businesses think about their supply chain for the long run," said Curtis Chin, an Asia fellow at the Milken Institute, calling it an "increased disengagement" of both economies.

"It can't all be in China, we've seen some of the consequences of over reliance on just one key market," he told CNBC at the Milken Institute's Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Talk of the risk of the world's two major powers "decoupling" surfaced as their trade battle, which began in 2018, heated up - leading to billions of dollars of tariffs imposed on each other's goods. Sticky issues also included the U.S. accusing China of intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer.

Chin said: "The reality is that the US and Chinese economies, from supply chains to investment and trade flows, will be intertwined for years to come. The coronavirus crisis, however, has underscored to the United States and all of China's trading and investment partners the value of diversification away from China."