Trump's tariffs: what's the real agenda?
US President Donald Trump has postponed the entry into force of new US tariffs on imports from other countries by a week. Instead of 1 August, they will apply starting 7 August. Commentators continue to speculate on the goals of Trump's erratic trade policy.
An instrument of subjugation
Trump's tariff policy is random and driven by a desire to punish, Corriere della Sera explains:
“Tariffs have become an all-purpose weapon with a wide range of applications. As long as they're used solely as a tool for eliminating trade imbalances, we're in a controversial but limited economic sphere. However, the 47th president also uses them - or threatens to use them - to bend other countries to his will on foreign and even their own domestic policy issues. An agreement considered valid on trade issues can be scrapped if the country stands in the way of Washington's geopolitical priorities.”
Revenge rather than trade policy
The Kleine Zeitung comments:
“Trump's threat to impose retaliatory tariffs of 40 or 50 percent on goods from Brazil is not a trade policy but an attempt to influence the Brazilian judiciary. The US president wants an end to what he considers to be the 'politically motivated' prosecution of right-wing ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. ... To the north, Trump is threatening Canada: the neighbour has announced that it 'intends' to recognise a Palestinian state, as any sovereign state is entitled to do. Trump immediately let it be known: 'That will make it very hard for us to make a trade agreement with them.' The motto: friend or foe - that's how you're judged. This has long been about more than just tariffs or policies. It's about taking revenge.”
Sustained assault on decades of elite consensus
Contrary to all predictions and warnings, Trump's provocative trade policy appears to be paying off, notes The Times:
“The US economy is expanding at a healthy clip, growing at an annual rate of 3 percent in the three months to June. Inflation has declined. ... It is far too early to declare that Trump has 'won' his trade wars. But what we can say with confidence is that the evidence continues to pile up that he is leading the US on the most sustained assault on the establishment consensuses that have held political leaders and policymakers in their thrall for decades. Not only in trade but across almost the entire spectrum ... his administration is thumbing its nose at elite opinion.”
Economic self-sufficiency is an illusion
American consumers in particular will feel the consequences of the tariff policy, predicts L'Opinion:
“This trade war will create many losers everywhere. A reduction in purchasing power is to be feared, but not so much on this side of the Atlantic. Rather, it is American consumers who may be hit by an inflationary backlash. May Donald Trump's protectionism finally convince the short-sighted 'barrier advocates' that economic self-sufficiency is illusory and futile. May the upheaval we are currently experiencing open their eyes to the benefits of free trade and an open market based on sensible rules. It's never too late.”