Page 2 - Beyond Tax: Contested Election, Trade War, and the Post-COVID World

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162 Estate Planning Review—THE JOURNAL

Post-COVID Trends Although the United States and China paused
their trade war this past January, many issues
It certainly looks like, post-COVID, there will remain unresolved, including the U.S. blacklisting
be a great shift to working from home. On the of Huawei. Possible military confrontations in the
macro-scale, this will impact office real-estate South China Sea might disrupt the uneasy trade war
markets, transportation systems used by com- calm.
muters, and possibly rural vs. urban residential If President Trump wins the election, he may
markets. again take more aggressive stances with respect
Videoconferencing will continue to become more to China. This might be seen as a positive by the
popular as companies try to cut costs and adapt to Markets, at least in the short term.
more employees working from home. In addition, Former Vice President Biden’s policies on China
online shopping is likely to increase. Computer are less clear, but he seems likely to be less confron-
security issues will loom larger. tational than President Trump and more likely to
seek international con-
sensus when dealing with
Possible military confrontations in the China trade issues.

U.S. investors look-
South China Sea might disrupt the ing to invest in China
uneasy trade war calm. stocks are likely to be
interested in American
Depository Receipts
(ADRs), Exchange-Traded
Additionally, we are likely to see employment- Funds (ETFs), and over-the-counter purchases of
based lawsuits alleging that COVID was used by the stocks of well-known large Chinese companies,
employers as a pretext for wrongful terminations. such as Alibaba Group and Tencent.
Regardless of the mode of investment, advisors

Trade War with China must note that in addition to the risks that ordinar-
ily attend U.S. stocks, Chinese stock investments
Other thorny issues relating to COVID-19 will have risks related to the Chinese government’s
likely remain, including disputes regarding Chinese greater control over its economy, its lax regulation
culpability for the outbreak and spread of the of markets, and its lack of transparency, as well as
pandemic. risks relating to currency exchange rates.

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