Sometimes it takes time and a wide-angle lens to put public policy into perspective. Real-time snapshots just won’t do the trick. After some reflection, I find the larger picture may be starting to emerge with respect to trade policy.

In a recent radio interview, the talk show host I was speaking with focused on U.S. trade policy and what might be expected from the ongoing tariff wars with China. I made the point that the Trump administration’s affection for tariffs involves more than China — that as early as April 2017, the United States had imposed tariffs on Canadian timber products, followed shortly thereafter by tariffs on Korean-produced home appliances, and then globally on broad categories of aluminum and steel.