In just six months, President Donald Trump has remade global trade and upended a century of precedent.
Trump on Thursday announced higher tariffs — again — on just about every country in the world. Even as some countries’ tariff rates came in lower than they had feared, practically all goods coming in to the United States face a significantly higher tax than when Trump took office in January.
The new trade regime will put in place the highest tariffs America has imposed since 1933, during the Smoot-Hawley era — a tariff bill that contributed to the deepening of the Great Depression.
The higher tariffs threaten to disrupt the global economy again. Despite a milder-than-expected impact so far at home, there’s already some evidence Trump’s tariffs are — slowly — reigniting inflation and slowing the US economy.
That danger is why leaders of developed countries for decades have largely lowered tariff rates and welcomed globalization — actions that have fueled the services economy backed by Big Tech and finance, but have also contributed to the offshoring of factories and manufacturing jobs.
