The trade war with the U.S. is taking a toll on Chinese business sentiment. Export order expectations fell to 48.0 (below 50.0 indicates a contraction) which was the lowest result since February 2016. All the pieces are in place for a downturn – tariffs on $250 billion of exports to the U.S. have been in place since September 24. There’s also bad news for supply chains across Asia with the import reading also having fallen to the lowest since February 2016. ASEAN countries accounted for 12% of China’s imports year-to-date, Japan 5% and South Korea 4%.