If you missed the latest threat from President Trump as he continues to huff and puff in his effort to blow down the protectionist wall Xi Jinping has erected in his effort to make China great again, here it is: A 25 percent duty on $50 billion is in place, tariffs on another $200 billion are being considered, and a third round on $267 billion of imports is “ready to go . . . if I want”—you, know, if China makes him really, really angry. That would cover just about everything we import from China.
Until now, Republican politicians who cling to their historic support for free trade have consoled themselves with the notion that Trump’s tariffs are aimed at bringing America’s trading partners to the bargaining table. There, he will explain to them that if they want continued access to the massive American market, they will have to give the United States fairer access to their markets. The result—according to such as his economic adviser and free trade apostle, poor Larry Kudlow—being that the parties will agree to remove all barriers to trade and we will move forward to broad sunny uplands of a barrier-free world order.
