Dear Commons Community,
David Sanger, White House and financial correspondent for The New York Times, has an article today entitled, “Tariffs by Whim Keep Allies Off Balance, but Do the Same to Markets.” He reviews the roller coaster ride the US Stock Exchange takes every time Trump makes “on-again/off again” announcements about tariffs. For this week, the Dow Jones is down $1052. as Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China on Tuesday only to pause them yesterday. Here is an excerpt from Sanger’s article.
“On Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick went on Fox Business to reassure nervous allies and even more twitchy investors that the Trump administration was negotiating a deal to avoid tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and that the president is “gonna work something out with them.”
“It’s not going to be a pause” for Mr. Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs, he insisted. “None of that pause stuff.”
On Thursday, the world got what the president characterized as more of that pause stuff.
Mr. Trump’s announcement that he had a good conversation with Mexico’s president, and would delay most tariffs until April 2, was only the latest example of the punish-by-whim nature of the second Trump presidency. A few hours after the Mexico announcement, Canada got a break too, even as Mr. Trump on social media accused its departing prime minister, Justin Trudeau, of using “the Tariff problem” to “run again for Prime Minister.”
“So much fun to watch!” he wrote.
Indeed, it appears that Mr. Trump is having enormous fun turning tariffs on and off like tap water. But others are developing a case of Trump-induced whiplash, not least investors, who sent stock prices down again on Thursday amid the uncertainty over what Mr. Trump’s inconstancy means for the global economy.
When the White House finally released the text of Mr. Trump’s orders on Thursday evening, it appeared that some of the tariffs — those covered in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that Mr. Trump negotiated and celebrated in his first term — were indeed permanently suspended. Other tariffs were merely paused.
Most everyone involved was confused, which may well have been the point.
As Mr. Trump hands down tariff determinations and then pulls them back for a month or so, world leaders call to plead their case, a bit like vassal states appealing to a larger power. Chief executives put in calls as well, making it clear that Mr. Trump is the one you need to deal with if you are bringing in car parts from Canada or chips from China.
And the president responds, as if he is granting reprieves, though not pardons. If, in a usual presidency, tariffs are debated by layers of experts and aides, their potential impact weighed with care, in the Trump White House the determinations are part whim, part weave, part pique. Explanations for what triggered the imposition of tariffs shift, and decisions to delay or suspend them are not accompanied by detailed rationales. Mr. Trump himself says he makes the call based on his latest conversations.
Trump is showing the world that he is a chaotic individual who has one interest – himself!
Tony
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