It can no longer be business as usual
The Brexit outcome is now clearly seen as a dud but it is not the only one
has rejected a deal agreed by Wilbur Ross, his Commerce Secretary, that would have seen China substantially reduce its capacity in commodity steel production.
The backstory is that in anticipation of much higher levels of growth than eventually materialised, China has allowed its steel industry to expand to a degree where it today accounts for around a half of global production. The excess has been dumped on world markets, hurting national industries elsewhere and giving the US more than adequate cause for complaint.
The Chinese offer would have gone some way towards rebalancing supply and demand; even the hardline Ross thought it preferable to a tit-for-tat trade war.
For Trump, however, political messaging is the greater priority, and he is reported to have rejected the deal in favour of the sledgehammer of much higher tariffs.
If implemented, China will merely respond in kind; what America may gain in terms of protection for what’s left of its steel industry it will lose in blocked exports and higher prices in the supply chain.
Assuming the same approach is adopted in talks with Mexico and Canada over the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, it will have similarly negative consequences. The US may succeed in reducing its trade deficit, the apparent object of the exercise, but it will make everyone poorer.
Great outcome.