Turns out, Donald Trump still likes tariffs. In his bid for a second term, he is promising a 10 percentage point tariff increase on all America’s trading partners, and dangling a tariff on Chinese imports of at least 60 per cent. All that might sound similar in tone to his first term, but trade watchers should quell any sense of nostalgia. His return could be quite different.
To recap, Trump’s first term started with his critics dismissing his threats as bluster. His tweets railing against bilateral trade deficits sent pundits into a frenzy, as they frothed that such figures didn’t matter. Then came the tariffs, on imported steel and aluminium, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars of imported Chinese goods. Some countries secured carve outs; others negotiated deals.
Trump’s second term would have echoes of his first. Some old disputes are still simmering: a fight over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing; a spat over digital services taxes; tension over trade in steel and aluminium. Concerns about China’s economic practices have only become more intense, as the Biden administration has maintained Trump’s tariffs and tightened restrictions on supplies of advanced chips.