Last week Donald Trump announced that his administration would impose punitive tariffs on imported solar cells. It was a simple remedy for one of the many supposedly simple problems that Mr Trump had promised to fix during the 2016 US presidential campaign, as epitomised by his pledge to “build that wall” along the Mexican border.
The Trump administration’s narrative for this particular trade action was straightforward. Chinese state support for its domestic solar energy industry had led to a glut of cheap exports over recent years. This hit US producers such as Suniva of Atlanta, which appealed to the administration for tariff protection.
Many of Mr Trump’s supporters were happy. If anything, they asked why the president had waited 12 months to advance this part of his “America First” agenda.