{"id":238073,"date":"2025-11-01T16:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T16:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238073\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T16:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T16:13:10","slug":"trumps-unusual-tariff-strategy-puts-americas-allies-in-a-near-impossible-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238073\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s unusual tariff strategy puts America\u2019s allies in a near-impossible situation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n President Donald Trump has made it clear that his favorite method to gain leverage over opponent countries on the other side of a negotiating table is to raise tariffs<\/a>. It doesn\u2019t matter whether the offense is trade-related or not.\n <\/p>\n

\n If there had been any lingering doubt (and I doubt there was), it was erased when Trump announced last week that he was increasing tariffs<\/a> on Canada by 10% because he didn\u2019t like an anti-tariff commercial<\/a> Ontario aired across the United States. Ontario Premier Doug Ford\u2019s TV ad quoted the late former President Ronald Reagan, who in 1987 criticized the use of general tariffs as a weapon of trade policy.\n <\/p>\n

\n It might seem obvious that there is no direct causal trade link between Ontario\u2019s and, by extension Canada\u2019s, action and Trump\u2019s threat of raising Canada\u2019s tariffs by 10%. Nevertheless, Trump\u2019s response was hardly a surprise.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The Canadian incident shows countries on the other side of the negotiating table with the United States face a near-impossible situation.\n <\/p>\n

\n First, they must negotiate trade deals by coming to Washington with a transactional mindset: \u201cWhat can we offer up?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Second, they must, at the last minute, be prepared for the US president to want more \u2014 so they better have something else up their sleeve they can give as an offering.\n <\/p>\n

\n And there\u2019s a third wrinkle: Never mind reciprocal tariffs \u2014 the United States is in the business of retaliatory tariffs for seemingly unrelated issues. It means no country can know what decision, policy or indiscretion will offend Trump, who may retaliate at virtually any time with further tariffs.\n <\/p>\n

\n This is uncharted territory, and it is not the normal way of doing business. Traditionally, tariffs have been used to correct a perceived trade imbalance and to protect the home market by making imports more expensive.\n <\/p>\n

\n What seems clear is that Trump\u2019s love of tariffs will ensure they remain at the heart of US economic policy. I see no scenario in which the president, even after having negotiated a trade deal, doesn\u2019t reserve to himself the right unilaterally to change his mind, threaten and then launch a fresh tariff.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some of Trump\u2019s tariffs contain at least a scintilla of geo-political logic. For example, his decision to punish India with 50% tariffs came because the country is still buying oil from Russia. One could \u2013 just about \u2013 argue the tariff was supporting some wider, strategic goal in halting the Russia-Ukraine war.\n <\/p>\n

\n With others, it remains difficult or impossible to understand the trade purpose of tariffs. Take Brazil\u2019s case: Trump thinks it\u2019s wrong to prosecute the former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly plotting to overturn an election. Describing the prosecution as \u201ca witch hunt that should end immediately,\u201d Trump raised the tariff to 50% due \u201cin part to Brazil\u2019s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.\u201d (The previous tariff had been around 10%.)\n <\/p>\n

\n According to the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association, exports of special coffees are now down 70% and the IMF is warning of a more general slowdown in Brazil\u2019s economy because of the tariffs. The tariff weapon has hit its mark.\n <\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/p>\n

\n Then there\u2019s Colombia. After Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized Trump\u2019s bombings of alleged drug smugglers off the Caribbean coast, Trump called Petro \u201can illegal drug leader\u201d who is \u201clow rated\u201d and very unpopular. The punishment: cutting off foreign aid and an unspecified increase in tariffs.\n <\/p>\n

\n For a country where democracy is often fragile at best, the economic disruption from increased tariffs could have devastating political effects.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump also imposed steep tariffs on South Africa for its perceived ill treatment of White farmers and land reforms.\n <\/p>\n

\n The list goes on. Last week\u2019s threat against Canada only confirmed the trend.\n <\/p>\n

\n After the last few weeks and months, countries have been warned. No one should be surprised if and when the weapon is fired.\n <\/p>\n

\n So far, the only country that has stood up to Trump and won is China. Xi Jinping has mastered the careful art of letting Trump appear to win while quietly claiming victory at home. Xi played his hand perfectly<\/a> and came away from their meeting this past week with a reduction in tariffs.\n <\/p>\n

\n But there\u2019s one final wrinkle: The US Supreme Court next week will hear Trump\u2019s appeal of two lower court rulings that found his use of tariffs as leverage to be an illegal use of his emergency powers. If the Supreme Court upholds those rulings, Trump\u2019s favorite tool could be significantly blunted.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump has made it clear that his favorite method to gain leverage over opponent countries on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-238073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}