China’s US Decoupling Collapses Trade in Key Petroleum Product

It’s been just days since China responded to US tariffs with its own set of eye-watering levies, but one corner of the petroleum market is already in crisis as bilateral trade collapses between the two heavyweights.

The price of propane, a type of liquefied petroleum gas, has plummeted in the US because selling to China, its biggest customer after Japan, is no longer viable. Chinese buyers are scurrying to find alternative sources of the fuel, which is used for heating and plastics, but are getting gouged by traders taking advantage of their distress.

The two countries should be ...