In a 1949 telegram to the US consul in Shanghai, Dean Acheson, then secretary of state, delineated possible responses to a Communist victory in China “should Commie commercial policy” disappoint. Among the options: invoking Section 338 of the Trade Act of 1930, which allows presidents to impose tariffs of up to 50 per cent on imports from countries found to “discriminate” against the US.
The telegram marks the last known official mention of the arcane bit of legislation. But when John Veroneau, a top trade lawyer in the administration of George W Bush, uncovered the statute recently he found it was still active and available for use.
For Mr Veroneau, who now leads the trade practice at law firm Covington & Burling, this illustrates a simple point. Buried in US law are plenty of tools to enable Donald Trump to unilaterally deploy new shock tariffs against big US trading partners.