Economists said Donald Trump’s plan to return trade barriers to levels not seen in generations would be “a grenade thrown in the heart” of the international system.
At a rally in Latrobe, Pa., earlier this month, former President Donald J. Trump paused in front of a crowd holding signs that read “Save Our Steel” to pay homage to one of his favorite concepts.
Tariff, he said, “is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. More beautiful than love, more beautiful than respect.”
Mr. Trump demonstrated a deep affinity for tariffs during his presidency, using them as a cudgel to punish both allies and rivals as he tried to force companies to make their products in the United States.
If he wins again in November, he is promising a much more aggressive approach, a full-scale upending of the trading system in which the United States is no longer a partner in the global flow of goods, but a mercantilist nation intent on walling itself off from the world.
The former president, who has described himself as a “Tariff Man,” has talked about tariffs as the solution to an array of problems, from making the country rich to funding tax cuts and paying for child care. But most central to his vision is the ability of tariffs to reverse decades of globalization and force factories to move back to the United States.
Mr. Trump has threatened to slap steep tariffs on every country — the most punishing levies reserved for China — to raise the cost of foreign products and try to reorder global supply chains. His tariffs would hit almost all U.S. imports, more than $3 trillion of goods.
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Source: Economy - nytimes.com
