The Challenges of Tariffs and Protectionism

Framed as a tool to protect American workers, rebalance trade and revive the nation’s domestic industry, the tariffs levied by Donald Trump came with a promise of bold results. On this episode of Trumponomics, Richard Baldwin, professor of international economics at IMD Business School, says the trade war is unlikely to accomplish its stated goals and that the world may very well leave America behind. 

Imposed unilaterally and outside the guardrails of the World Trade Organization, the president’s tariffs represent a sharp break from decades of US policy. Baldwin, author of The Great Trade Hack: How Trump’s Trade War Fails and Global Trade Moves On, tells host Stephanie Flanders, Bloomberg’s head of Economics and Government, that the levies weren’t about reciprocity or even results. Instead, they are about “grievance.”

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