When Wilbur Ross fired the first shot in a transatlantic trade war this week by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico, there was an irony embedded in the logistics. The US commerce secretary was in Paris, so he had to pick up a phone at the OECD and call reporters back in Washington to announce his action. The former financier detailed the US’s plans to punish its traditional allies while sitting in an institution born out of the Marshall Plan that still stands as a pillar of the US-led post-second world war order.
If the 80-year-old felt any sense of irony upon announcing the latest of US president Donald Trump’s assaults on that international order, he did not let on. And for close observers of the pragmatic former Rothschild banker, who built a fortune out of turning around bankrupt steel and textiles companies, that was par for the course.
In an administration known for its combative approach, Mr Ross is an unflappable public defender of its questionable economics. He is also a converted globalist, comfortable with contradictions. Although he now happily embraces Trumpian protectionism, he once owned textile factories in Mexico and China and made billions selling US steel mills to an overseas buyer.