How did the world come to the brink of a trade war?
Jun 01, 2018
A key theme of Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016 was that American jobs were being lost as a result of unfair global trade. Most commentators thought it was bluster when Trump threatened to impose swingeing tariffs on Chinese goods and to pull the US out of trade deals.
But the US president has kept his campaign pledges. First, he withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement signed by Barack Obama. Then he launched an investigation into China’s alleged theft of American intellectual property rights. In March, he said the US would impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminium. Further action against China has also been announced.
