Trump’s tariff fiasco could save free trade - The Business Times

[WASHINGTON] In the nearly two years since he returned to the White House, US President Donald Trump has picked up where he left off in his first term, shredding the open multilateral trading system that has served the world so well since the end of World War II.

He has imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, repeatedly raising and lowering them and changing rates on individual goods and countries, seemingly on a whim. As a result, US tariff rates are now higher than at any time since the Great Depression’s Smoot-Hawley tariffs.

Trump’s tariffs have provided domestic industries with some protection, but at the expense of others that depend on them. His 50 per cent tariff on steel imports, for example, has contributed to a 52 per cent rise in the average US price of hot-rolled coil steel over the past year.

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