Veteran investor Peter Schiff said Tuesday that China has emerged as the winner of President Donald Trump’s trade war. Tariffs reduced the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China by a third to $73.9 billion in the first half of 2026, according to Census Bureau data, but Schiff said the broader U.S. goods deficit has barely improved while Americans face higher prices. The overall U.S. goods trade deficit widened to $118.8 billion in July, its widest gap since March 2025, as imports of capital goods such as computers, semiconductors and AI hardware rose 11.3% to $140.1 billion. Oxford Economics attributed the increase to business spending on high-tech goods linked to the AI buildout, much of which the administration has largely avoided taxing. China’s overall trade surplus reached nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025, and its exports rose 25% year over year in August after increasing 23.9% in July. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged G20 nations to reconsider their trade ties with China, while a 19-to-1 statement by the U.S. and its allies called for countries with excessive external surpluses to reduce export dependence. China was the lone dissenter. Trump is also weighing an additional 7.5% tariff on Chinese goods as Washington and Beijing seek to preserve a fragile trade truce before a planned meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping later this month.