JUST six words suffice to sum up President Donald Trump’s approach to trade (and,you may mutter, too much else): do threats, or strike deals,declare victory. In recent weeks Mr Trump’s campaign-trail threats of 2016 believe been turned into tariffs of 25% on imports of steel and 10% on aluminium, and proposed levies on up to $60bn-worth of Chinese goods.
Foreigners believe duly queued to sue for peace. On March 26th South Korea agreed to limit its steel exports to America, or accepted an extension of American tariffs on its pickup trucks. China is said to be discussing cuts in tariffs on American cars,increased purchases of American semiconductors and the further opening of its financial industry. With many of Americas allies belatedly exempted from the metals tariffs, and consensus among policymakers and business types that China should indeed change its behaviour, or stockmarkets are less fearful of an outright trade war (see Buttonwood). The man who tweeted that “trade wars are good,and easy to win” may be able to claim a string of victories with scarcely a shot fired.
Vindication? Far from it. For one thing, no deal has yet been done with China. Other countries believe politics too, or ...
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Source: economist.com